


Roses and Rust

by LostOneintheBack



Category: Final Fantasy IX
Genre: Canon Temporary Character Death, Character Development, Complicated Relationships, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Epic Bromance, F/M, Friendship/Love, Gen, Love Letters, Platonic Relationships, Rivalry, SlowBurnSortOf, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:26:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 32
Words: 78,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24636037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostOneintheBack/pseuds/LostOneintheBack
Summary: Captain Adelbert Steiner of the Knights of Pluto and General Beatrix of Alexandria are many things; rivals and confidants, comrades and foes, but they are not strangers.Ten years of working side by side makes their dynamics shift; from the first time they argue, to the year of the princess’s 16th birthday and beyond.What remains are the oaths, promises, regrets, and discoveries along the way.
Relationships: Beatrix/Adelbert Steiner, Freya Crescent/Fratley, Garnet Til Alexandros XVII/Zidane Tribal
Comments: 47
Kudos: 33





	1. Captain of the Knights of Pluto

**Author's Note:**

> A series of one-shots based around the General and our knight in Rusting armor. I don’t plan on making these in any particular order timeline-wise, so they could jump around from pre-game to post-game. I’ve tried to use the official FF9 Ultimania for some background info; but I’ve taken some...creative license with some of Beatrix’s and Steiner’s history.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adelbert Steiner has only ever wanted to serve his homeland as a knight. He has one chance: defeat the best swordsman in the kingdom, or forever abandon knighthood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The formatting is a little funny to me; I’ll get used to it more as time goes on, I’m sure.

Lieutenant Adelbert Steiner of the 14th Regular Alexandrian Infantry stood at attention in front of the Queen and King of his homeland. His palms were sweating; his stomach was doing backflips. Being called for an audience with the Queen wasn’t something he had expected out of a Monday morning.

“Your Service has been exceptional, Lieutenant,” Her Majesty began congenially, her fan flickered to fight off the growing summer heat. He felt a trickle of moisture trail down the back of his best shirt. 

“I have looked over your request, and I feel it to be unprecedented. Commoners do not normally become Knights.” She snapped her fan shut. 

Steiner’s backflipping stomach fell through his feet. He had spent days working on the draft to petition for himself to be knighted. She was right, of course. Steiner was no noble. He had barely scraped together enough Gil to finally purchase a commission after seven years in the Regulars. 

Queen Brahne smiled toward her husband. “However, your record is commendable. Your holding action at the North Gate during this Burmecian Skirmish was highly successful, and you saved many lives on top of defending Alexandria and her interests. After some deliberation, we have decided to grant your request. Conditionally.” She raised a bejeweled finger at the point. For the first time in years, Steiner felt hope for this far-fetched dream of his. 

“Anything, your Majesty!” He exclaimed in earnest, remembering himself in the presence of royalty and stifling his jitters and quick response. The King and Consort smirked beside his Queen. 

“After doing some digging in the annals,” The King began, “We have found an old law that still stands true. If a Knight-to-Be can overcome a challenge worthy of the title, then he may join the ranks of that office.” The King’s ever present smile was gracious, while his Queen flipped her fan open to flicker quickly, her lips pursed at the notion. 

“I have decided your challenge,” She announced, “and that is the form of a duel. If we are citing an archaic law, then it will be an archaic challenge.” She gave a sidelong stare at the ever-smirking King. Steiner’s attention flitted between the two of them, a growing panic in his ribs. 

“You will face Beatrix in one on one combat. If you win, you will have attained Knighthood. If you lose, you will forever forfeit the ambition.” She proclaimed decidedly, like an edict for the world to hear. Steiner’s ears rang with opportunity and dread. 

Beatrix. THE Beatrix?! That little arrogant stripling who had been harassing and humiliating him for the last two years?! Steiner did not know her well, but knew of her talent and drive--their few conversations up to this point had been quick and cruel. She was wry and sarcastic—she laughed at him constantly. 

To the point, he didn’t care for Captain Beatrix.  
He felt his ears burn at the idea. A duel with the best swordsman (swordswoman?) in Alexandria. How was he supposed to—

No! He was a simple soldier. The Queen had to be sure that only the best became knights. Her judgement was just and honorable. And if she saw fit to make him duel an opponent he could not defeat...he couldn’t act like he had just given up! He had to—

“Lieutenant? What say you?” The King broke through his desperate reverie and Steiner snapped up to his full height. He hadn’t realized he’d been slouching, nor day dreaming his audience away. 

“I accept, your Majesties!” He declared with far more bluster than he felt. With a wave of her fan, Steiner considered himself dismissed. With a salute, he turned to leave. 

“I don’t know why you encourage this kind of behavior, my love. The man is not knight material nor will he succeed,” Queen Brahne murmured. 

Steiner pretended not to hear. 

***

Beatrix almost broke out into a full guffaw.  
“Your Majesty jests,” She half-pleaded, standing beside her Queen in the afternoon heat. The Raza river’s shine danced jovially and languidly, the Queen was perspiring even in the shade of the garden. 

“No, sadly, I’m not. His highness was very adamant about giving the Lieutenant his opportunity. And he shouldn’t be a problem, Captain. You’re highly skilled, far more than a bumbling commoner—he should be dealt with succinctly.” Queen Brahne flittered her fan in exasperation, looking at the boats and gondolas that drifted smoothly by. 

“His highness brought this about? Does your Majesty not approve, then?” Beatrix fought back a smirk. It would not do to taunt him if he could not see it. 

Queen Brahne huffed.  
“Valfor was quite persuasive. He thought this ‘Steinmann’ did an excellent deed against the Burmecians, and apparently, to the king consort, this meant we can forego our standards for who attains Knighthood. It’s highly irregular. The Knights of Pluto are all but obsolete, and that’s the only place in the castle where a man can be assigned. I’m baffled and amused,” Her Majesty huffed with a shake of her head, not looking pleased at all. Her jewelry jingled with her motion. 

Beatrix remained silent. Adelbert Steiner. Besides being somewhat a half-wit rival, she hadn’t thought of him much after her first year in training. They had their verbal sparring matches, which he failed dismally at, and his swordplay was much to be desired. He was large and lumbering, not sharp enough to understand that brute force didn’t win you every battle. Beatrix had been training her mind and body for knighthood almost her entire life; and while she could say the same for Steiner, he lacked her...ambition. He seemed content with merely doing his duties—like being a soldier was enough for him. Beatrix found it odd and a wanting on his part; that he could desire nothing else! 

“And he agreed to this, your Majesty?” She asked her Liege smoothly. Queen Brahne nodded, perturbed at the very idea, it seemed. Steiner had always been brave but foolish. Brave to his detriment. 

“Valfor reminded me that Knights of Pluto were traditionally an order of commoner knights. That Alexandrian Knights can climb through the ranks of the army. I can not recommend him but I will honor his service. Let him lose with grace, if you can, Beatrix.” The Queen stood to leave the waterside, hand maidens flanking her as she went. 

The swordswoman looked out over the water, letting herself smile ruefully at the situation. After this bout he would never challenge her again if he knew what was good for him. 

***

The sun was beating down on the sparring arena with a vengeance. Even in the heat, Steiner felt a chill along his skin. 

“Jittery, L.T?” Breirecht, an older man who had been a Pluto Knight for longer than anyone could remember slapped Steiner hard on his plated shoulder. 

“Ah, no! No such thing,” The armor-clad soldier spoke with more gusto than he felt. 

On the other side of the arena was a group of Alexandrian Soldiers and Knights, foremost among them was the chestnut haired girl who would crush every dream he ever had with a sneer and a scoff. 

Steiner shook it off; best not to dwell.

“Get her, kid!” The older knight murmured, leaning against the railing. 

“If I lose, I can never become one of you, you realize that?” Steiner asked incredulously, while the elder knight merely shrugged. 

“Knights often fight battles they know they will lose. Bravery is facing your defeat, if it means the preservation of what is good and just.” Breirecht recanted sagely, scratching his tufts of beard as if bored. 

“Or, you know, you’ll never make it if you never try!” He finished with a chuckle—oblivious to the situation Steiner found himself in. 

Beatrix didn’t even seem to notice he was on the other side of the ring. She was chatting amicably with her troupe, loosing her sword belt and pulling the gleaming metal out into the sunlight. She didn’t spare him a glance. 

Like he would be so easily bowled over! His ears burned, and he slapped his helmet on with a glorious clank.  
The presiding Officer, a woman known to Steiner as Colonel Maia, sauntered into the ring with an easy grin and a strong voice. 

“Alright everyone! This official challenge has been sanctioned by the Queen herself. Normal sparring rules apply—disable your opponent. Captain, Lieutenant, good luck.” Colonel Maia winked at Steiner, turned on her heel and stepped beside Breirecht, the both of them mirroring the same position on the wooden rail. 

Steiner retrieved his sparring blade, a wide broadsword that was blunted at the edges. Beatrix held one of the same type, but longer and thinner—more suitable to her style. He tried to remember how she fought; mostly only recalling how fast she was. Quick and deadly. 

Steiner had to be quicker. Or simply last longer. 

He stepped into the sparring ring, his fingers were tingling around the hilt of the broadsword as she entered. With a toss of her hair over her shoulder, she twirled her long sword flamboyantly, gazing at Steiner with a smirk that to him was too cocky, too self assured. Arrogant, that’s what she was. 

“I commend your courage, Lieutenant,” Beatrix bade with a small nod of her head. Steiner’s fist clenched around his blade. 

“You have no need to,” He rebuked through clenched teeth, bringing his sword up, readying his defense. Mocking him! She was mocking him—she never ceased, even whilst his honor was on the block, she was too ready to behead it. Beatrix raised a single brow at his rebuttal, then rolled her eyes. Her expression schooled itself into neutrality, and Steiner felt his grow more livid with each heartbeat pounding in his ears. 

She readied her stance—he set his feet into the dirt—a soldier sneered at him from beneath her helmet visor—Beatrix’s eyes seemed black in the sunlight—Breirecht coughed behind him—

Metal flashed in front of his face and his helmet was knocked clean off of his head. It hadn’t even clattered by the time he brought his blade across his chest to block her next blow. And the next one, and the next one. Beatrix was faster than his eyes could follow until he stepped away, and she twirled to keep him in range.  
He swung in a large arc to back her off, he saw the whites of her eyes as they widened, but she ducked beneath his powerful, but sloppy, swing. He felt the impact of her own swing against his abdomen, heard the metallic clang of her sword on his breastplate and the breath stolen from his lungs. 

Using his size to his advantage and how close she was, he slammed his shoulder against hers and sent her sliding back. With an impatient hiss she found her footing, pulling her blade back up to swing forcefully and furiously. 

He blocked and blocked and clumsily parried his way around the ring, and she pushed and pulled him every which way. He was being herded around, hearing the jeers of her fellow officers and laughs at his expense. His ears rang as her sword clattered against his armor, his vision blurred as he tried to keep up with her; he could taste the dirt kicked up and the sweat beading on his face—or was it the rusted ichor of blood...? 

He was going to lose and she was going to kill him—he was sure—

Steiner heard her growl as her blade connected with his again, sparks flying in the rigor—and he had never seen her as furious as she was then—

“Yield, you fool,” Her coal eyes pierced into his, and his arms quaked the effort of keeping her at bay. He shook his head with a grunt, shouted a desperate “Never!”, and shoved her backwards. 

Her foot caught in his helmet, forgotten on the ground. He stepped forward to swing. The broadsword caught her last-minute block, but her wrist twisted at the blow. The blade was knocked unceremoniously from her grip and she shrieked in pain as the remainder of the strike struck her forearm and rib. She spun from the force, foot still in the helm, and flailed to the ground with a decisive thud. Her blade flew and fell outside of the ring. (Narrowly missing the sneering Knight on the sidelines.) 

A pregnant pause. 

Beatrix was face down in the dirt. Her foot still caught. He couldn’t see her expression beneath her curtain of hair, but her fingers bore into the earth like she could pull it up and hit him with it. 

His heart pounded in his ears and his ragged breathing was barely heard over the roar of his blood. 

He...he WON?! 

“You yield!” He shouted incredulously, sword tip pointed toward Beatrix’s prone form. Her head turned to look up at him, her eyes a bright amber as they caught the sunlight. A livid, livid color to match her expression. 

“HOOOYEAH!!!” Breirecht cried from the sidelines, slapping a shocked Colonel Maia on the shoulder as he continued his shouts of victory. The explosion of excitement around the ring was deafening and overwhelming, even as there were shouts of foul play and calls for rematches. 

Colonel Maia stepped into the arena, pushing Steiner back to his corner and helping Beatrix up to her feet. Beatrix scowled at the helmet caught on her boot, removing it with ire, and stalked up to Steiner with an unreadable expression. 

She thrust the helm into his hands, Meeting his eyes with a glare he had never seen from anyone or anything; including Mist Monsters. 

“Well done, Sir Knight,” Beatrix announced through clenched teeth, turning on her heel and tossing her hair over her shoulder. Colonel Maia announced something else, there were shouts of words he couldn’t hear—it all blurred together into sounds he couldn’t pick out. 

Sir Knight!

***

Later, for his victory, Queen Brahne awarded Adelbert Steiner a position within the Knights of Pluto, and, with advice from the King, promoted him to the long vacant post of Captain. The knights only numbered five, and were a ragtag group of men that fit nowhere else in the Alexandrian Army. The Knights of Pluto took up their old duties as defenders of Alexandria Castle, for the first time in decades. 

Steiner wasn’t sure if Beatrix would ever forgive him for beating her. On accident! Besides a terse congratulations and a promise to get a rematch out of him one day, she didn’t speak of it for years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may end up restructuring how these chapters work, what do you think? More linear? Less before-game chapters? More before-game chapters?


	2. 100 Knights, Single-handedly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beatrix makes history, and learns that glory has its price.

“I _didn’t train all these years to take a back seat to anyone.” -Ambition, Beatrix_.

The Burmecian Conflict was getting out of hand, if you asked Colonel Beatrix of Alexandria. Which the people that did ask her were likely to agree with her. Queen Brahne had had more than enough of the incident, wishing for a decisive conclusion that would finally have the Mist Continent back on the path of long-lasting peace.

“But it’s not a war,” Catherine, a red-headed fury clarified one morning before maneuvers, looking to the rest of the General’s Squadron as she asked. Zephyr, a tall and brooding woman with dark hair and piercing eyes, hummed in response. Beatrix tossed her own hair over her shoulder as she clasped her sword belt around her waist.

“Not a war yet, no,” She answered smoothly, glancing up at her General.

Aveline was a veteran of Burmecian Conflict, having been part of the last war with the kingdom some twenty odd years back. She was severe and blunt, to the point. She was harsher on her peers than Beatrix thought reasonable, at times, but she got results, lead her army with excellence and pride, and Beatrix respected the woman and her decisions.

As the General was inspecting the last of her gear, she sighed through her nose.  
“Her majesty doesn’t seek a war. So it’s our job to ensure that doesn’t happen. Again,” She said, her lips pursing at the words.

“The King of Burmecia is still as petulant as he was decades ago, but he’s growing old. Hopefully his son will have more sense.” Aveline finished, organizing her gear with the same finality and marching from the room. The rest of the squad quickly packed up and followed after her, Beatrix at the forefront.

***

The trip to the North Gate was filled with Catherine’s chatter, Zephyr’s thoughtful reposes, and Colonel Maia snoozing her way throughout the trip. Beatrix conferred with Aveline over the plans to secure the North Gate.

“The knights that are there aren’t enough,” Aveline began, pouring over a report. The stamp had the seal of the Knights of Pluto, and Beatrix reigned in a sneer. Her blood boiled at the memory of those idiots and that. Accursed. Captain.

“And they cannot hold the gate forever. We are to relieve them with a contingent that shall be arriving within the week, so until then, it’s just us and a small platoon.” The General finished.

“They shouldn’t be too hard to replace, then, if it’s only The Knights of Pluto there—” Beatrix began.

“Captain Steiner has been fighting the Burmecians for longer than I have,” Aveline interrupted and Beatrix tensed her jaw, “Technically, anyway. They’ll be there until the reinforcements come. I need their eyes and ears through all of this.”

The Colonel huffed under her breath, looking down at the map. Steiner fighting the Burmecians for so long...? No. It was a non-issue. Aveline wanted intelligence from the Pluto Knights, and Beatrix would have to maneuver around her disappointment.

***

“And this is all, my little speared thane?” Aveline confirmed, flipping through the scouting reports in front of this motley crew of fools. 

The North Gate was as imposing as it was strong, open to the enemy lines and guarded well by the knights and light artillery.

Steiner, tall and broad the thick as molasses, gave a confused and sharp salute as the old man and his other four knights all saluted either sloppily, with the wrong arm, or incorrectly all together. 

Buffoons. 

Beatrix would have to find new synonyms for their ineptitude.

But Aveline’s nickname for Steiner gave pause to her thoughts. Little what now? When he spoke, the annoyance banished her curiosity.

“Yes, General. The pass is clear and the gates on either side are secure,” The Captain clarified, glancing down and up from the papers to the General. His agitation alone annoyed Beatrix at this point. 

Fidgety. He was fidgety and that made his archaic armor creak with every move he made. How anyone could stand it was beyond—

“Very good Captain. I’ll take a small team and scout beyond the pass, see where this enemy encampment you saw is hunkered down,” Aveline pointed at an area just inside Burmecian territory.

“They’ve surely pulled back, General. We haven’t seen their fires or tents for three days,” Steiner interjected, and Aveline shook her head.

“No. They wouldn’t have a contingent of a hundred knights out and about just to leave without trying to bloody our noses, at least.” She disagreed, rolling up the important papers to send back to the city.

“We have our orders, Squad Aveline,” The General addressed her troupe as the Knights of Pluto stood awkwardly in their line. 

Beatrix flipped her hair over her shoulder as she and the others stood at attention; uniform, even, and in contrast to the staggered zig zag of idiots across from them.

“We’re to get past the gate, find any stragglers, report what we can to the Castle. If we see a large enemy force, we are not to engage—I mean it, Catherine,” Ordered their General as the red head scoffed a low chuckle. Beatrix elbowed her as she fought back a grin. The young woman was too fiery to be sensible.

“We do not engage if we don’t have to. I’m sure all of you are aware how tense the situation is; we do not want a war. Her Majesty has been clear on that. In the morning, we move out.” Aveline announced, and the squad saluted with a strong “Yes, General!”, even the Pluto Knights, who weren’t part of the operation. 

Well, better not have been a part of the operation.

  
Beatrix gave a sidelong stare at the Captain of the bumbling nonces. She hadn’t spoken to him directly since the incident that promoted him.

He was busy straightening his soldier’s shoulders, barking out how to salute properly, how to be...anything other than the cadre they were. 

His voice boomed like it always did, and it sent a shockwave down the base of her spine, annoyed at the sound. 

Catherine was being too excitable as they fell out of formation, Zephyr was being too quiet, Maia was being too...herself. 

At the moment Beatrix didn’t even know why everyone in the vicinity was setting her teeth on edge, but she was pretty sure it circled around her need to beat a club about the sides of Steiner’s creaking breastplate.

***

The North gate was actually two gates, one on the side of Burmecia, and the other on the side of Alexandria. 

It composed of a pass about half a mile long, with battlements above the sides for a defending army to pincer in any force that would come through. It was a tried and true tactic, funneling in a larger force to a smaller threat so that the invaders numbers meant for nothing.

The Gate was built in response to the ongoing hostilities with the Kingdom of Rats, as veterans of the conflict would say. 

Beatrix found the Burmecians to be an honorable people, their dragoons a mighty brotherhood to be reckoned with, and their natures to be no different than any Hume she had ever met. 

The Burmecian king had been on the throne now for fifty years, and he was a holdover from the old regime that saw Alexandria and Lindblum as bitter enemies that Burmecia could pick off as they got expended killing each other.

  
That mindset was a century old now, at least. The Mist Continent was changing. The current Cid Fabool IX was a decent and wise ruler, done with the infighting on the continent. Queen Brahne and Regent Cid hoped the Burmecian King would agree, but so far, that was turning out to be vain optimism.

General Aveline’s presence was not announced, naturally, as that might set off a more martial response on the other side of the gate, but she insisted to be at the front lines to both deter a more radical and aggressive assault, and also in case one broke out. 

If there was going to be war—Aveline wanted to be the first to see it. Beatrix could understand that, and yet she couldn’t shake the apprehension that set in throughout the night.

“I mean, they can’t even have much of a standing army after all these years,” Catherine ventured while the squad sat around the fire.

“Twenty years of skirmishes will do that, Yea. They haven’t had a real fight since Queen Brahne’s father, honestly I just think they’re going through the motions, now. Their troops don’t even seem to have it in them anymore,” Maia observed, engrossed in her meal.

“Apparently, according to our illustrious knights in rusting armor,” Catherine thumbed back to the haphazard-set tent of the Pluto Knights, “these Hundred Knights of theirs are half mercenary blackguards that defected from Lindblum back when Cid the ninth became Regent. Mercenary knights. Can you believe that?”

“Some men know no honor.” Zephyr spoke for the first time since the trip began, and Beatrix made a mental tally. First time in days, by her count.

“Most men know no honor,” Catherine scoffed, her eyes darting to the crippled canvas tent.

“Hey now, they’re not so bad, ladies. They’re just a little...quirky,” Maia ventured, ever ready to partially defend the blustering mess that was the only males in the Alexandrian military.

But Maia had fought side by side by the previous Captain of the Knights; a valiant man who lost his life to the same war Aveline fought two decades ago. 

The post was vacant until recently, much to Beatrix’s chagrin. She was more ashamed by the man who won it rather than the position being posted. Who she could still hear thundering around behind them, ordering for the tent to be remade. 

She looked over her shoulder to see him, clanking around the premises as Breirecht and a few of the new men lifted poles and canvas.

“Blutzen! Kohel! Lift at the same damn time, I can’t hold this all day, now!” The older knight shouted as the two tweedles twisted a rope and canvas together, while a pole almost fell on Steiner on the opposite end of the tent.

A man was caught beneath the collapse, shouts of “Can’t breathe!” And “Getting Dark!” as his form popped from the tent with a dramatic gasp.

Maia sighed, set down her ever present cup of some spirit, and stood to walk towards the knights.

“Ima comin’ boys. Hold your chocobos...”

Catherine shook her head. “Too much patience for them. She has far too much patience for the lot of them,”

Zephyr shrugged and turned, “Wasn’t the Captain in the same camp as you when you were in basic, Beatrix?” She asked, looking up at her Colonel. Beatrix huffed a sound that was more like a scoff, and nodded.

“He was one of the trainers for the common soldiers, and those of us that hadn’t been knighted yet,” Beatrix continued, knowing that if she didn’t Catherine would keep asking.

“That must have been a blast, Colonel,” Catherine jeered with another shake of her head, and Beatrix flipped her hair as she stood to head into the tent.

“An honor, to be sure,” She rolled her eyes when her face was out of view, “Get some sleep, Catherine. We’ll be up before the dawn.”

***

Dawn had Aveline shaking Beatrix’s shoulder, jostling the younger woman awake.

“C’mon, Colonel. I need you up to get the others up. I’ll be at the gate. Twenty minutes.” She ordered, leaving Beatrix to scramble up and kick Catherine awake (who never went to bed at the right time) and gather the others. Zephyr was already up, and Maia was loitering about outside but easy to find.

When the squad gathered, the General was already marching through into the pass.

  
“Keep your eyes open, Squad Aveline. We know they’re around the pass somewhere,” Beatrix ordered to the troupe, falling into formation with the others.

The march through the pass was quiet and resolved, full of only their footfalls and the metallic sounds of armor. 

Beatrix was only glad the Pluto Knights stayed back in Alexandria. If he was unbearable a dozen feet away, Beatrix didn’t want to know how she’d react to Steiner marching beside her.

The mile passed quicker than she would have thought, and they reached the opposing end in good time. The morning was still young, but the mist was thick and heavy in the air. The smell was like the instant before lightning struck, before rain came, but no thunder or downpour would ever breach the clouds. The Mist was a never ending suspense, hanging in the air obscuring just enough of the horizon to make you doubt your own eyes.

  
Beatrix shuddered in the warming glow of the sun, the light fractured in the ever present fog. Silence. There wasn’t any sound of even monsters along the plain. Just an expanse of green and milky terror.

“No signs of encampment near the gate, but in these conditions, heh, good luck seeing where they would be,” Maia murmured as they fell into an echelon formation.

“We scout ahead.” Aveline pushed forward, and the squad fell in line, ready for anything this far into enemy territory.

The trek was as silent as the one in the pass, but a static buzzed in Beatrix’s ears. 

She could feel the tension in Zephyr’s shoulders. She could smell the remnants of a cigar that Maia always puffed on in the morning. She could feel in her own hands the grip that Catherine had on her hilt. She heard her footsteps mirror her General’s in front of her.

She smelled blood in the air.

The Mist parted over a scene of a battle. 

Mist Monster corpses, about a dozen of them, littered a small patch of valley about three miles outside of the gate. What caught Beatrix’s attention were the boot prints in the soggy grassland. So many boot prints, like an army teamed up to fight the beasts off.

“Looks like we found our mercenary force, but where are they now? There’s none of their bodies here...” Catherine asked as she poked an ironite’s flayed shoulder with her sword.

  
Beatrix examined the battlefield, and found that Catherine was right, for once. No bodies of Burmecians or Humes. Just Monsters.

“Where do these tracks lead then?” Aveline asked rhetorically, as she slowly made her way towards where the boot prints fell into their own formations and marched onward. Beatrix hummed to herself, flipped her hair, and followed her General.

***

He heard shouts break through the din as his knights were packing up. War cries, screams.

  
Steiner rushed toward the North Gate, seeing nothing through the pass’s long stretch but still hearing sounds of fighting cascade through the battlements.

“Knights! Assemble!!” He shouted to his wayward troupe, who scurried for their swords, shields, helms, and, in Blutzen’s case, their pants.

“Hurry! They must have found the enemy! Move, move, MOVE!” Steiner roared and ushered his men through the gate. The few other Alexandrian knights that were stationed followed along, and in a mad dash Steiner was ahead of the group.

When they rounded the bend that held the other gate, his blood ran cold.

Aveline’s Squad was pinned down by twice their number in knights, and the gate was shut on the other side. He didn’t see the General. He didn’t see Beatrix.

Shaking away the distraction, he pulled his blade and charged in fury, swinging at mercenary, rogue knight, and Dragoon in turn.

***

Her back was to the gate, long sword in her hands. She and Aveline were alone, the rest of the squad were trapped in the pass beyond the shuttered wall of wood and steel.

How the Burmecians managed to close the gate ahead of them wasn’t her problem at the moment; the dozens and dozens of gleaming swords and spears pointed at her was. 

Aveline held Save the Queen with surety and confidence, even as they were pressed in by the majority of the force trying to get past them and through them.

Beatrix breathed in, and felt the hum of electricity build in her blade as the first of many rushed her.

***

Steiner swung and connected the tip of his blade to the back of a Burmecian knight, bringing him down as his own knights clamored around them. 

The General’s squad looked bloodied but able, and he and the remaining Alexandrian knights turned the tables on their plot. It was them now trapped between a wall and the sword, but they would not fall with ease. 

Steiner made it to Maia, wounded in the shoulder but still swinging.

She stopped just long enough to shout, “Aveline and Beatrix are trapped beyond the gate! We couldn’t let them get in, we had to close it, we have to help them, Captain!”

Steiner growled at the desperate situation, looking up to the cranks that lifted the gate. If they let the force in, they could face their doom and Alexandria would never know what happened.

  
But they couldn’t be left out there to die! 

He grabbed the collar of his nearest Pluto Knight, Hugh, was his name? He was new, but he was young and agile, a good runner. Well, probably their best bet.

“Get back to Alexandria, tell them what has happened, GO!” Steiner boomed, shoving the man toward the opposite gate and prayed he made it through the ongoing fray.

Steiner scrambled up the battlements, creaking to a stop as a Dragoon plummeted from the sky. The spear would’ve shaved off a mustache if Steiner had ever had one.

He brought up the blade to swipe the leaping knight away, but the Burmecian backflipped, his massive foot bouncing off Steiner’s breastplate to send the Pluto Knight clattering down the flight of stairs he had just climbed.

Huffing and heaving himself up, Steiner glared at the Dragoon was crouched and vigilant near the gate crank, sneering down at the Hume as he struggled to his feet.

“Stay down, Alexandrian!” He snarled, spinning his spear deftly. Steiner straightened his helm, wiped the sweat from his eyes, and hefted up his broadsword. 

His comrades needed that gate open, and by God, he would open it. 

Steiner climbed and swung.

***

Beatrix had been training her whole life to be a knight. She had never trained to fight off scores of knights at once.

She parried, blocked, sidestepped, and strategically used her mana. She didn’t know if the gate would ever open; they had to get away from the swarm. Aveline struck down man after man, the red flashes of Climhazard blazed out of the corner of Beatrix’s eyes as the flare of Stock Break brought low the five men in front of her. Her forearm and hip were bleeding.

Beatrix caught a glance of a Dragoon leaping into the air, and felt his shadow pass over her. She brought up her long sword to block the leap, and it never came.

Aveline screamed in pain.

Beatrix barely had the time to turn and look, only seeing her General drop from her sight behind two men.

The attacking force backed away, like the sea pulling from the shore, readying for a tidal wave. 

The General was down, Beatrix was tired and wounded. 

She took the breather to slide to the side of the General, who looked like she had been shorn down her back from the plunging spear. Blood slicked the ground, both hers and theirs. 

They were faceless now, this army, their glares and spits and snarls an amalgam of sneers.

Aveline’s breathing was ragged beneath her, Beatrix pressed a hand to her General’s shoulder and prepared a Cura; something to keep them alive before the blackguards attacked again.

Beatrix stopped the spell. No. She would not die here. She would be the greatest swordsman this world had ever known; that was her destiny! She could not die now, she could not—

A searing fire of pain blasted the side of her face. She rocked to the side, hands into the dirt and her blade skittered away.

More blood poured down the side of her face, she tasted the salt and rusted copper, and her vision was all but shot.

She couldn’t see, her eyes watered and her hand groped for a blade, any blade! Anything!

A hand clasped around her wrist. She wiped away at her left eye to look down. Aveline had her by the hand, thrusting the hilt of Save the Queen into her grip. She locked eyes with her General, who wheezed and coughed through a sardonic smirk.

“They are insects to a holy knight.” She huffed, and Beatrix looked up through bleary vision to see the next wave of laughing combatants close in on them.

Close in for the kill.

Beatrix stood, lifting Alexandria’s blessed blade high. 

A fury, a focus, a surge of color and sound and light. 

_**Trance.** _

She cast her last healing spell—and let loose Climhazard for the first time.

They outnumbered her, immensely, but they were so much slower than her.

She struck one with a regular blow and he went flying meters away. She looked down to her armor gleaming, her skin glowing like sun fire. 

Her vision was still fuzzy and it was difficult to see, but she twirled through the knights with the blade of a General, cutting them down like chaff. 

The rest was a blur of blazing red and gold light.

***

  
Steiner caught the leap of the Dragoon just right with his blade and twisted the knight away, sending him sailing down the battlements to land on his back. The Dragoon took his sword with him, still tangled in the pronged spear. Steiner ran to the crank, using his whole strength and weight to start heaving up the gate.

Squad Aveline had returned with vengeance in the second half of the battle, whittling down the ambush to nothing. The General’s troupe now turned to the gate apprehensively, with his knights and regular soldiers backing them up.

When the gate opened, Steiner gawked at the carnage beyond. Nothing but mist, pained moans, and blood.

He didn’t have time to count how many dead and wounded lie around the gate. The Alexandrians instead began looking for their own in the confusion.

“A monster? Could a monster had done this?” Breirecht quaked, glancing around at the knights crawling away or outright fleeing if they could find their feet. If they were moving.

Steiner scanned and his eyes landed on a hunched figure; he could pick her out of even the mist, any day.

Beatrix was on her knees, Save the Queen in her lap, bent over a shivering General Aveline. Steiner slid to his own knees before the two of them, calling over someone, anyone!

Maia and another knight arrived to start carting the General away on a litter.

“Beatrix! Beatrix, say something! What happened? Are you-” Steiner was interrupted by her head raising and the massive slash that ran from the top of her forehead above her brow, curving down into her right eye that she wasn’t opening. Beatrix hummed a sound that was both impatient and tired, and Steiner moved to heft her to her feet.

“We need to get you back, you need a healer, let’s go,” He urged, but the moment she stood her knees collapsed, and Steiner caught her as she tried to go down.

“No, no you don’t. Forgive me, but this is quicker,” He tucked his arm beneath her buckled knees and hoisted her up, Save the Queen pulled up with her and clasped in both hands.

“My women,” She whispered hoarsely, and Steiner huffed a sound of acknowledgement, looking Maia in the eyes as she and the other soldier carried General Aveline away. Steiner followed after them, not stopping until they were safely on Alexandrian soil.

“So many...they didn’t end...” Beatrix murmured feverishly as he marched as quick as he could through the pass.

“And you defeated them all,” He assured, his blood grown cold at the prospect. She should not have survived an ordeal like that, and yet here she was. Battered and bloodied but alive. Steiner was relieved at the miracle, even as he was despaired by the idea of her doing it alone.

“And I defeated them all.” She spoke with more fervor than she seemed to have had, her head bobbing off his elbow with every step; and Steiner relinquished her to the healers without another word.

***

Later, Aveline would relinquish her command due to the battle wound that would never truly heal.

Like always, the post of General would pass to Maia, but she would turn it down. Expecting as much, Queen Brahne decided on the young swordsman who defeated the advanced force of Burmecians and single handedly diverted what could have been a war.

Beatrix of Alexandria became the second youngest General to ever serve the Kingdom at age 18.

The King of Burmecia took ill later that year, and the crown passed to his son; a man with peace on his mind and a country to renew and reinvigorate.

If Steiner had any qualms about any of it, he didn’t voice them publicly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every FF9 character has this one quote that goes along with their character, and a word that describes the main struggle or change that character goes through. I think the quote at the beginning fits Beatrix’s conflict personally, as her ambition caused her to go along with Brahne’s warmongering. It is her biggest turning point, and her largest hurdle.


	3. Nine Snippets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nine points, out of order, where fates cross time and time again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So these might become chapters someday on their own; but for the moment they seemed fine as small ideas to hopefully grow into larger ones.

Weimar once asked Captain Steiner who he thought was the most attractive of anyone in the castle. Steiner turned beet red and howled at him to do push-ups until he puked. Weimar insinuated that the Captain either has someone in mind, or never thinks about women. Steiner almost argues that he thinks about the General and that has to count, right?! And then realizes that probably doesn’t sound the way it should and storms off. 

***

Though she saved Aveline’s life, Beatrix and her former General never formed any close bond. The Ex-General moved to Treno, where both women were from originally, but besides the odd card or letter, they never wrote much. Beatrix was too swept up into her duties, and Aveline got caught up in the world of Tetra Master in the decade since her ‘retirement’. 

***

Sometime after the Captain and Queen return from Memoria, Beatrix finds herself in Adelbert’s company more and more. Beatrix also finds it difficult to sleep at night, and Adelbert learns how to soothe that rampant, anxious regret. His hands thread through her hair as she presses her face into the linen on his chest, and she decides it is her absolute favorite thing in the world. 

***

Steiner writes letters to his mother; well, the woman that took him in after the war that left him an orphan. He writes to her about his day, about ‘that blasted woman’, about his growing feeling of insignificance. Beatrix mocks him lightly one day about it, and he storms off without rising to her taunt. Steiner! Who never misses an opportunity to bellow at her. She realizes it was out of turn, a line crossed; and it is the most stilted apology she has ever given anyone. Made worse by it being Steiner. He salutes in acceptance, but doesn’t speak to her for days. She grows annoyed by the fact that she misses his arguing. 

***

The first time he ever saw her, he knew she would be trouble. She was arrogant, talking back to him-her trainer! She was mouthy and argued with him over every order he gave. “Rise and shine!” “I’ll rise, but I will not shine.” “Report to the quartermaster for a uniform!” “Is that where you got yours, Lieutenant? No, thank you.” “Knights stand straight, soldier!” “Is that why you’re slouching?” Just nonstop back talk and sass! She never relented! And she was talented; but raw. She was a quick study, but miserable to work with. Beatrix never once let up on him, and he never did in turn. When she was promoted to General, they spent far too much time in the same areas. The castle became boot camp. 

***

After Alexander was destroyed and the party regrouped in Lindblum, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. They had bigger issues, Kuja’s desert palace, continents no one had been to; but the night before clung to him like her scent. Roses and steel. He didn’t know what became of her after the Invincible struck; and although he doesn’t show it-his Queen needs him, after all! He is driven to distraction the whole way back. 

***

When they are fugitives from Alexandria, they hide in Treno, in a den of thieves that saved them. It’s the first time in years that she has seen him out of that atrocious armor. They adopt civilian wear, and he actually stops shaving every morning. He has a month’s worth of growth in his hair and face, and while he scowls at how unkempt he looks, she remarks how he almost looks rakish. In a good way! Steiner flushes, shakes his head rapidly, and scratches again at his chin. He stops bemoaning the growth, though. 

***

The night before Memoria, the party is camped in the remnants of Alexandria Castle, and Beatrix cannot shake the feeling she will never see him again. She and Steiner walk the length of the Red Rose, talking and talking, until she pulls him into her quarters on the ship and...in the morning, after he kisses her goodbye and wears this look of determined acceptance as he leaves—she can still smell him on her sheets, her palms warm with the memory of his shoulders...she finds the only people brave enough to face the gates of Hel with her, his knights; and swears that she will follow him to Valhalla if he must go. 

***

His Pluto Knights are brave, she muses as they stand to block her path. The fools from Burmecia have found their way in and the Captain has gone rogue; and they dare try to protect him? Their blades shake, their knees buckle, and still they block the door to the Queen’s chambers. She scoffs, flips her hair, and removes them from her way. Brave, but foolish. Just like their Captain.


	4. Reunited along the Raza

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Kuja’s Desert Palace, Beatrix and Steiner see each other for the first time since Alexandria was destroyed. It was not exactly what the General had been expecting, but she finds she is not disappointed by it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forget what the name is for the moat/river that surrounds Alexandria castle, so for my own sanity’s sake, I named it after Brahne. 
> 
> This chapter, as well as most others, is a fill-in-the-blank. ATE’s that could have been, as it were.

Beatrix saw Garnet, her Queen, she reminded herself; for just long enough to check for missing limbs, eyes, or other assorted injuries. She still could not speak, and Garnet absconded to her mother’s grave after a small hug and forced smile. Beatrix didn’t know what happened until Zidane came running by to inquire after her. A Desert Palace! A trap? And Kuja flitting away to some heretofore unknown plane of existence accessed by a magic mirror. 

It was far too fantastical for her, and her very soul was heavy from the destruction of the past few months. The party had come to Alexandria to regroup in the wake of all this; and Beatrix hadn’t seen a glimmer of Steiner until she heard an unfamiliar chinking along the Raza river.   
When the rest of the party arrived to confer with Zidane over preparations and ideas; Beatrix barely recognized the Captain. The armor was new. Everyone’s was, really, but his cuirass was a completely different one than she had seen for the past decade. The helm matched! 

Neither one of them spoke until the party scampered off. Zidane to Garnet. Freya and Amarant to compare hunting tactics and talk about some woman named ‘Lani’. Vivi and Quinna to raid the castle larder. Eiko to scurry after them before deciding to follow Zidane. 

Steiner didn’t look at any of them the whole time, didn’t even fight with the thief about the prin—the Queen. His eyes locked on the fountain and when they all left, they locked on her. She didn’t know how to move under that gaze, her fingers curled and uncurled at her sides as she tried to meet his eyes. 

He didn’t say anything. Not a thing. The man she couldn’t get to shut up for five minutes at a time! He just closed the distance between them with his muted plate mail and looked at her like he had never seen her before. She prodded the glistening mail of this new armor. 

“This is new,” She observed dumbly. He laughed breathlessly and nodded, looking down at her finger. 

“It’s quiet. I don’t think I like it,” She admitted, taken aback by it. Steiner was loud, even his armor was loud. He hummed, crinkled his nose and shook his head. Beatrix raised a brow.

“Quiet doesn’t suit you, Captain. I, of all people, should not be breaking silences,” She determined and moved to pull her hands behind her—

But he moved first. Took a decisive step forward and his arms were around her waist, pulled her in and she could feel his hands on her back. She thought he would ki—but he didn’t, tucking his head into her shoulder and sighing like he he had been holding that breath since the attack. 

Beatrix’s eye went wide, her arms raised in the surprise and her cheek set against the mail of his helm. She didn’t know what to do—and so she just curled her arms around his head. Accepted the embrace. It had been years since anyone was a fraction of this close. 

“This would be better without the cuirass, for future endeavors,” She murmured into his plated shoulder and he laughed the most honest laugh she had ever heard. 

***

Beatrix caught him up on the status of his knights as they circled around the destruction of their home and castle. The left wing was in shambles, the front of the castle damaged, and the northern tower was half rubble. He told her himself about Kuja’s plot to blackmail Zidane; the traps they almost fell into; the Queen slowly becoming more of herself again, against all odds. 

She jests with him about the new armor, how his knights won’t know it’s him and how her troupe won’t know what to do with themselves anymore if they can’t mock him. 

“Do they still call you ‘Rusty’, then?” 

“Always. Zidane won’t let the moniker go, much to my dismay.” 

“Pity for you, but it has grown on me. I should try calling you that myself.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” 

“I could get your knights to start yelling ‘Yes, Captain Rusty!’ for a lark.” 

“Beatrix, no!” 

And so on. Shining new armor or not, he was still Adelbert Steiner under that, still the same loud, excitable, obnoxious, gallant, foolishly invigorated knight. He seemed different than the bumbling Captain that left with the Princess in January, but she felt different than the General that stalked the streets of Burmecia. 

***

When Zidane gathers everyone to board the Hilda Garde III, she bids her Queen (with a new haircut!) farewell. 

When Steiner gives her a longing last glance, she grabs him by the gauntlet, holds him fast long enough to fall from the gazes of his fellows, and pulls him down as she leans up. 

She kisses him; the first time she has ever kissed him; and he freezes before he responds. 

It’s insane and inane and confusing and exhilarating; she doesn’t know what in the world has gone on this year but pulls away and...he’s smiling. Grinning from ear to ear. 

She feels her blush slowly simmer and smiles at her feet, gives him the same ‘good-luck’ and ‘come back safe’ as she gave her Queen. He leans in, presses his forehead to hers and embraces her quickly before spinning on his heel and clinking away. 

Beatrix doesn’t know if her heart calms down for the rest of the day.


	5. Exile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steiner awakens in Treno after committing treason against his Queen. Old rivalries dissolve into uncomfortable futures, and Steiner must face what is to become of a knight with nothing to defend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So their dialogue is my favorite thing to work on, just so everyone knows.

“Steiner. Steiner, wake up-if you die here the both of us will be sorely disappointed.” A smooth voice broke through his rest. What he thought was his rest, anyway. 

Bliss faded into waves of soreness and pain, his torso felt like it had been pinched in a vice and his head was spinning as he sat up, still half blind. He felt a hand on his chest and a soothing warmth fill his lungs. 

Beatrix’s voice lulled in a prayer, a spell...and he opened his eyes to a small cramped room with clutter and brick-a-brack on the wooden walls everywhere. A lantern lit the space when what little extra light from Cura faded from Beatrix’s fingertips. She sat on a stool beside the bed he found residence in, a bed so small his feet dangled off the end. 

He was out of his armor, in clothes that were not his; Beatrix was out of uniform as well. Her eyepatch was a different make than the usual, an embroidered bandana? He smelled river water and alcohol and cigar smoke; sewage and lye soap; roses and rusted metal. 

The bandersnatches! The princess! The—he tried to stand, yelped, and Beatrix’s hand steadied against his abdomen to push him back down.

“Easy, easy. You have too many injuries for such foolishness. Sit down, breathe.” She soothed and ordered, stern and sure. 

“What happened?” He grunted out, pressing his own hand against a sharp jabbing in his ribs. 

Beatrix’s lifted away from him, and she looked to the closed door. 

“We fought the monsters those Jesters threw at us. You, Lady Freya and I. The thieves-Blank and Marcus, they found us broken and bleeding. They carried us away from the castle and brought us to Treno. Lady Freya was still unconscious, last I checked.” 

“How long have I been out?” He attempted to stand and she pulled him back down by the collar. 

“A day and a half.”

“How is it that you’re up, then? Surely you sustained some injury?” 

Beatrix smirked ruefully. “I only had to deal with some monsters. You had had to face me, and then the fiends. Count yourself lucky, Captain. I was less vicious than they.” She poked at a healed area on his neck where her blade had bit through the chain mail. He waved his hand at hers weakly, but impetuously; nose crinkled at her poking. 

“You certainly gave them a run for their Gil, didn’t you?” He rubbed at the spot sorely. Her brow raised. 

“‘Run for their Gil’? My, Steiner. But you have been around the thieves too much.” She remarked coolly and he scoffed. 

“Hardly. Any word about the princess?” 

She shook her head, setting her hands into her lap genteelly. 

“None. But that’s also good news. It means that Garnet is not captured by the Queen either. However, neither the princess nor her companions are in Treno.” 

Steiner growled in the back of his throat. They couldn’t return to Alexandria and they couldn’t go looking for the princess now. They were exiled, probably wanted for betrayal or...

“I have to find her. That’s my-” He cut off quickly. His duty. What was his duty now? He was no doubt stripped of his knighthood-his Queen denouncing him for his loyalty to the princess. She was with Zidane; Steiner had entrusted her to him. He had...nothing left, did he? He could do nothing for his men, nothing for his home, what was left—? 

“Adelbert?”

He snapped back into focus, looking over to Beatrix as she addressed him-by his first name no less. 

“You drifted off mid-sentence,” She said lowly. Where normally something like that would have been accusing or agitating in some way, now was just an utterance. Beatrix looked exhausted; and not in the way she usually did when having to deal with him for long periods of time. 

Steiner shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter. The princess is with Zidane and she will be safe.” He nodded and rubbed at a recently healed wound. Beatrix hummed and looked down at her fingers as they worried against each other. 

He paused. Looked at Beatrix. Scratched at his neck. She retained the same stoic posture through his fidgeting. 

“Thank you. For what you did for the princess, and for me...” Steiner muttered awkwardly as he felt. Beatrix actually scoffed with an incredulous and wry smile. 

“Who are you talking to, Adelbert? Of course I tried to help her. You and I have always had one thing in common. We would kill for our Queen,” Her amber eyes darkened, “But we will die for our princess. It’s been that way ever since she was small. And you’re welcome, for what it’s worth since I did half the damage myself.” She entwined her fingers and looked up at him directly. 

“Brahne has been making questionable decisions since the Prima Vista. This was a long time coming,” She admitted stiffly, but as much as it revealed, as usual, Beatrix withheld most of everything else passing through her eyes. Her gaze blank and her face a carved mask. It was a look she reserved for him, he just knew it. 

The Queen...he dropped his chin into his chest. 

“I think I knew...I think I was just stubbornly refusing to see it.” Steiner mumbled mostly to himself. As usual, Beatrix interjected.

“You? Stubborn? Surely, you jest.” A small puff of a laugh he didn’t see.

“I don’t feel like being laughed at for the moment—why do you always do that? I—Gah! Never mind.” Steiner rebuked and ran his hands through his short dark hair. Beatrix blinked and her half-smirk vanished like smoke. 

“My apologies.” She said tersely. Steiner shook his head, dropping his own hands into his lap and moving to stand. He felt her push him back down again.

“Dam-Beatrix, stop it.”

“Where do you think you’re going? What hurry are you in?” 

“I need to be—I need to go—” He blustered, his vision starting to swim again. 

“Not until you can stand without falling on your face. I can leave, if that’s the problem. But you stay here.” Beatrix moved to stand, and Steiner shot out his hand to pull at her sleeve. 

“No, it’s not—sit down, woman.” He tugged, and she didn’t move at first, but slowly sat back on her stool. 

It was the most ironic thing in the world. Everything else was gone from him, yet here the only familiarity he could find was in a decade-long rival next to him. Beatrix shifted in her seat. 

“What happens now?” He asked, feeling like his deep voice was smaller than it should have been. Beatrix shook her head, and he noticed her usual large curls were smaller ringlets now, curling over her shoulders wildly. 

“The thieves will likely want to look for their brother, this Zidane. Which will lead us to the princess, eventually. We could try to find her, defend her again. Brahne will not give up so easily when she realizes there is a threat to her throne running around.” 

A sound plan. She was always a great strategist. But when he looked over to her, her gaze was elsewhere, her look defaulted. It had all the makings of an ideal situation, for the both of them. 

But with everything that happened...it sounded empty. Like a machine just ticking because that’s what it did. 

What else did he do but duty? What else was his life but a shield for the princess...? 

“Adelbert.” She snapped her fingers in front of his face and he started, whipping his head around to face her, to growl or shout or do something, and his vision just swam with the chestnut color of her hair and the blue of her eye covering. 

“A concussion, no doubt.” She pressed a hand against his forehead and pushed him on his back. Steiner sighed in aggravation. 

“No. I’m just...not thinking straight.”

“That’s what a concussion will do to one,” 

“There’s more to it than that.” 

“More to you than short sentences? I believe it. No doubt you’ll start yelling again in no time.” 

“Stop it.” 

“Stop what, Captain?” 

“This!” He flailed his hands above him and pressed his palms into his eyes to alleviate the pressure. He heard her take in a breath, hold onto it, sigh quickly. 

“I’m no Captain. You’re no General after the dungeons, we can just...stop. There’s no point.” He muttered through his teeth. 

“Again, apologies. ‘Tis a force of habit.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, a tense statement. Impeccable manners, even now. He didn’t care for it. It made her seem so much farther away than she was. He preferred it when she just yelled at him rather be polite. 

The politeness meant she had had enough. 

“That came out wrong, I didn’t mean it like—” He started to bumble his way through some apology, he was so angry and worried and confused and for once none of it was wholly her fault or by her doing. She cut him off with a voice as cold as her blade. 

“No. You’re right. The neither of us are what we were.” He could almost hear her jaw lock at the end. 

A pause. There was always a pause with her. Silence brought on by...whatever it was they fought over. 

“What happens now?” She asked in the same almost whisper, and he looked at her from under his hands to see her examining her own fingers again. He sat up and set his back against the headboard to keep him up. 

“I don’t know,” He never did, did he? “Yours is a good plan. Keep Garnet safe, as we always have. Stop Brahne’s madness, somehow.” 

“That’s a feat, at this rate.” She spoke without looking up.

“Knights fight battles they know they will lose.” Steiner repeated the old adage with a dry laugh. Her face tilted up to look at him. Their eyes locked for the first time this year that wasn’t in rage or mockery. Just...searching. For anything. 

Steiner knew she was looking in the wrong place, he barely knew his own self. 

“First we must survive our sentence.” She blinked, the spell broken, her pragmatic nature back to the fold. 

“Yes. Avoid the beheading!” He mused with a faux pep to his voice. Not a smile from her, just a blank stare. Steiner preferred her laughing at him. At least she was anything but despondent. 

“The thieves.” He ventured, get her on some other topic. She shook herself of her malaise and began anew, regaling him of the last few hours, leaving behind the topic of their very uncertain fates.


	6. The monster challenge of Treno

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our traitors and thieves run into the very...peculiar challenge of the weapon shop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really do love Tantalus, and hope to include them more as I go on.

Beatrix watched as Steiner examined the beast beneath the shop. A Zaghnol, a great and petulant monster found in the forests and plains around the continent. It was huffing and heaving in its large cage beneath their feet, and their three other companions took varying degrees of interest. Blank was leery, Marcus was looking at a blade on the wall, and Freya seemed to want to jump into the cage and fight it immediately. Steiner was curious, and it was an interesting look to see on his newly-stubbled face.

  
“Hey, hey! You all want to take the Monster Challenge? You fight the beast my husband keeps and you get a prize! Easy!” The old woman behind the counter cajoled to her party.

  
“Yeah. Easy.” Blank scoffed and leaned against a nearby wall. Steiner looked over to Freya with a growing grin.

  
“This is like the beast you fought in the Festival of the Hunt, isn’t it?” He asked. Freya hummed and circled the top of the cage.

  
“Indeed it is. I wonder if it is as ferocious.” And just as Freya mused, the beast thrust its horns at the top of the cage. She leapt five feet into the air to land beside Steiner.

  
“Oh, only one of you at a time, though. That’s the run of it.” The proprietor continued, and Beatrix bought a few basic provisions that had nothing to do with battle. She hadn’t been wearing Save the Queen, so perhaps she could be passed off as just some traveler. The blade was too well known and...gotten too heavy in her hands lately.

  
“Ah. Well that’s too bad, Lady Freya.” Steiner remarked, still examining the thing below them.

  
Freya shook her head. “Perhaps we should try it. The prize can be sold and used for travel funds, we’ll have to leave Treno soon anyway.” She suggested easily. Steiner humph’ed and tilted his head at the creature.

  
“Can’t be worse than the Bandersnatches...”

  
“You cannot be considering this...” Beatrix interjected, looking between the two of them. Freya smiled at the challenge, and Steiner smirked with a small nod. Blank coughed and pushed himself off the wall while Marcus bought four hi-potions wordlessly.


	7. Past, forgotten.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beatrix has an unexpected solo meeting with Freya one night, and both face things that perhaps they are not ready to face.

They had been hunkered down in Treno for a week now, and they had been using Tantalus’s hideout for the duration. It was small and cramped and Beatrix had been wedged between the wall and Steiner’s back for too many nights now. One early black morning, after awakening from a new night terror (those were becoming more frequent as of late), she pulled herself from their tentatively shared room to sit out by the dock. 

She found she was not the only one with the same idea. 

Lady Freya stood by the water, leaned against a rail where rowboats bobbed against their ropes. Beatrix was thinking of her options, and Lady Freya interrupted her thought.   
“Steiner, you should really get some—” The Burmecian turned and paused, looking at the General standing awkwardly in the doorway. 

“Forgive me. I thought Steiner was out and about again.” 

Beatrix shook her head. Was he often? Was that why they rarely slept at the same time? 

“No, he’s sound asleep. I’m taking the vigil, for the moment.” Beatrix lied smoothly, shrugging a shoulder. Freya turned back to stare at the docks. Her plan for the eve ruined, Beatrix spun to walk somewhere else—anywhere else. 

“Wait,” The Dragoon Interrupted, “I’ve something to ask you. Many things, actually.” 

Beatrix wanted to hide. From herself, from her shame, from her own cruelty. She turned back to face the knight. Freya examined her, it seemed, her blue eyes clear and sharp and the color of the sky. 

“Years ago, a knight left Burmecia due to rumors of you. He traveled to slay beast and being to train to be your equal. His name was Sir Fale Fratley. He was a Dragoon of great ability. Did you ever meet such a knight?” Freya said the words with baited breath, with reserve, with a sorrow Beatrix hoped in vain that she did not cause. But she had no memory of such a Knight, and shook her head.

“No. Burmecian Dragoons are singular combatants. I would have remembered facing such an opponent. I hadn’t fought a Dragoon in a decade. Well, until you.” She motioned to Freya, who sighed deeply and cast her gaze to the water soaked planks. 

“Burmecia...” Freya began, taking in a breath and standing to her full height. “On the Red Rose, you expressed disgust at the black mages. You insinuated your knights were not used for the invasion. Were you responsible for that carnage?” 

Ah. That explained how they managed to get back to Alexandria so quickly. They stored away. 

“I am General. Military operations are my responsibility. Everything that happened—that was my fault,” Beatrix eluded lowly, but Freya shook her head. 

“Kuja and Brahne have their parts to play. The black mages slaughtered everything. Killed women and farmers who didn’t even put up a fight. Soldiers don’t do that. Knights don’t do that.” The Burmecian urged. 

Beatrix thought of Steiner; whose mother and father were farmers who didn’t put up fights either and Burmecia...no. That didn’t belong to Freya. Beatrix only knew it by accident. 

“No. Alexandria doesn’t slaughter civilians. At least, I didn’t. You don’t become what I am by slaying townsfolk. They—there was no reason for it. For any of it.” Beatrix wanted to say more; about how she should have done something, stood up to Brahne sooner but she let her selfish ambition blind her to what she was becoming. What she and Brahne were becoming. But they were all platitudes and Beatrix was never one to just keep blathering on. 

“I regret everything. And it will never be enough. I know this.” Beatrix finalized. Freya glanced from her to the sky, and from the water to the dock. 

“Perhaps. While it may be at the eleventh hour, you still turned your back on Brahne. She was still the one to call down an Eidolon on Cleyra.” 

“Not many will ever see it that way. I don’t. I allowed her to warmonger without question.” Beatrix argued, a hand clasped to her elbow for something to do with her worrying fingers. 

“One doesn’t ‘allow’ a Queen to do anything. She does it. It doesn’t matter. Pointing fingers changes nothing.” Freya sighed quickly and turned to look up at a clouded half moon. 

“I hope you find your Sir Fratley.” Beatrix bade and began walking up the steps to the street. She might have heard a sniff from the Dragoon Knight, but Beatrix had her own sorrows to carry at the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While Beatrix had her hand in the Burmecian invasion, it’s also shown and stated that the black mages were most to blame for the carnage that ensued. Kuja and Brahne were the masterminds behind it; but of course, Beatrix does not see it that way. 
> 
> Freya, to me, was always the character in the party that seemed most like Beatrix to me. Calm, collected, polite, honorable, and deadly. She also always seemed to be a woman of great perception, and while she held Beatrix responsible for some of the atrocity, also knew where those orders came from. I always saw it as that was the reason why Freya could fight side by side with Beatrix against Brahne in the first place.


	8. The place of memory and regret.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Memoria, the party finds more than just the past of their planet. They find their own pasts, their own regrets, and Steiner relives moments that he now never wanted to have happened in the first place.

Memoria was a jumbled plane of nonsense. Yesterday would be in front of them one moment and then a hundred years from the past the next. Staircases that spiraled up into nowhere and waterfalls that plummeted into abysses. The light fractured and sound broke; and just getting here was a fight worse than anything anyone could have anticipated.

And the fiends here...they were like...Demi-gods. Every battle was a fight for their lives, but Vivi’s magic ever grew, Freya became more lethal with every swing, his princess and Eiko summoned more powerful Eidolons, and he released Seiken abilities for the first time.

Climhazard felt like Beatrix; ruthless and red and shook his very being. Zidane, well, he had always been impressive; but now anything was lucky to land a hit on him. Amarant might have actually posed a threat to the thief with his improvement and Quina...s/he was ecstatic to find all the new delicacies.

It was a place of memory, Garland advised. They had seen snippets of their own past; Amarant saw the moment he decided to become a mercenary. Freya saw the moment Sir Fratley left Burmecia. Garnet saw her mother again, running to the boat that saved her life.

They were also tormented by scenes of their own very, very personal lives.

Vivi was ganged up on by the three Black Waltz’s all at once; whispering of the young mage’s impending death.

Eiko had to listen to Zorn and Thorn cackle as they slung spell after spell; taunting her about how she would forever be on her own.

Quina had far too many frogs to catch and no time to do it. Their master tormented them by eating the frogs in front of him/her.

Steiner did not want to face what he would face; because he knew exactly what haunted him. And when the party found themselves inexplicably in front of the North Gate, from Alexandria’s side, his blood ran as cold as it did a decade past.

Zidane piped up first, “This looks like...”

“The North Gate. Alexandria. Only...something is off...” Garnet finished, tilting her head at the battlement design and the archaic flags. Steiner’s stomach dropped farther and farther and his hands clenched in their own sweat. He marched up to the gate, and it opened without machination or device. The pass was a long hallway of blue stone, and Steiner knit his brows at the sight.

“This is wrong. This isn’t the pass, this is—” He stammered mostly to himself, but Freya stepped beside him, setting a hand on his shoulder.

“Burmecia. The bridge to the courtyard of the castle. There aren’t any good memories for us here, anymore,” She stated, glancing at Steiner out of the corner of her eye. He swallowed thickly.

“Nothing good came from the gate either. And nothing will...” He took in a breath and let it out shakily, looking back at the party. His Queen’s eyes were too large, too knowing. Of course she would have heard of this; everyone knew the General’s story, it seemed.

Steiner turned swiftly and marched swifter, his hands still in anxious fists at his side.

The North Gate pass that was half mountain and half Burmecia turned into a misty expanse of bluish black stone that never ended. The ground was carved in the intricate and rune-strewn designs of the City of Perpetual Rain, but there were no statues and no walls; just the mist.

Just the rain.

Steiner remembered there being bodies here, men crawling away holding their wounds...instead he saw their visages carved into the floor. Pictures of the battle but not a speck of blood. He looked up and around the expanse; his eyes caught a hunched figure and his breath was sucked out of his lungs.

“I don’t wanna do this again...” Vivi clutched at his staff, shaking under his hat. Zidane patted his steeple gently, eyeing the figure they all could see clearly.

Steiner held out his arm as Zidane tried walking toward the figure.

“No. This...this one is mine,” The knight spoke hoarsely, and his thief-friend glanced up at him apprehensively.

“If you’re sure Rusty. But this-this was half our memory...” Zidane tried to reason, but Dagger came beside him to pull on his cuff.

“True. But most of this battle is older than the Burmecian confrontation...” She looked warily at Steiner, who swallowed thickly before taking the tentative steps toward the woman knelt on the ground.

Her hair was like it was a decade ago. As long and luscious as it ever was but—less tamed. Wilder in its curls and tangled by the mist that clung to them.

“Be—” He tried to speak, there was a flash of metal in front of his face, his helm caught most of the blade and sparks blinded his vision. A shriek of surprise from his Queen—

His gauntlet caught the next blow by pure accident.

Back off—he had to back off; he needed the space to breathe—

She was relentless! When the sparks cleared and he saw her perfectly—she was that young slip of a girl again, the one with raw talent and little precision. Both her amber eyes blazing in the rage and naive determination that sought glory—

Her blade swung with power and momentum; but Steiner set his footing, parried an oncoming swing and sidestepped the other. Her stance was precarious and unbalanced, and as she swung at his head again with a growl, he stepped into her, making her overreach, and slammed his shoulder into her chest—sending her flying to land squarely on her back.

She howled in frustration; a sound he hadn’t heard in just as long as this battle; and rocked her knees into her chest, ending in a flashing kick-up that had standing before him a different girl.

Her face adorned by a plain bandana on its right side, her Alexandrian uniform exchanged with the one of her new position as General. She didn’t look up at him, her blade held loosely at her side.

This was the young woman who learned glory had a price. Steiner felt a twinge of pain where his neck met his shoulder. Felt a piercing fire right below his heart. Like old wounds caught up with him; memories of pain; and were gone in the same instant.

She was on him, swinging and twirling and blade blazing in front of him and at him. Where before she made predictable strikes, now she swerved and feinted. Her grunts and growls were replaced with quick huffs and inhales—she was controlled and focused.

Twice the tip of her blade missed its mark on him; and that’s when he both remembered and observed. Her depth perception was off! She had just lost that eye!

“I don’t want this!” Steiner shouted at her, closing the distance quickly and sending the hilt of his blade through her defenses to pound into her abdomen, sending the shade to ground coughing and hacking at the impact.

“Stop! I’ve enough! This isn’t what—I never wanted any of...” Steiner couldn’t find the words!

His sword tip fell into the stone below with a dull chunk of a sound. Beatrix stood from her position, her blade sheathed, her visage a mirror of the woman he last saw on the Red Rose; in the crest of midnight and at the peak of dawn...

She could be dead. The Red Rose plummeted to the earth from the force of the dragons hitting it. She could have given her life to get them here. To get him here. And this is what he remembered of her most?! The fighting and the bitterness and the rivalry?!

“And yet,” the shade spoke in a stolen, silken voice, “this is what you regret.” Her eye looked up at him, black as Hel and cold as his grave, set in the face of the woman he loved.

“This is what you regret. A lifetime lost in pursuit of nothing. A future you could have had, and wasted. The woman you could have adored that you made your enemy time, and time again,” The being tossed stolen tresses over its copied shoulder, a counterfeit smirk on false lips.

Steiner would not die here. This was not his fate. He would not remember her like this. He clung to the image of her before he left—to the velvet feel of her before time and fate and chance tore him from her arms... His hand clenched around his sword hilt; and promptly let go. The magical blade he helped forge in Daguerro clattered to the stone below.

The forgery of a figure raised a delicate brow; the look she reserved for him when she was calculating something he had done. Her hand never left her fake Save the Queen.

“You think you can outsmart a duel with yourself? Interesting. I commend your courage,” The mirror spoke in several voices of Beatrix all at once, “but you will fall here, creature.” She pushed off of one foot and closed the distance, her sword drawn, lightning building—

Zidane yelped a warning—

Steiner stepped toward her and raised his gauntlet to divert the blow—

Save the Queen sank into his shoulder but she was in arms reach!

As Thunder Slash struck the ground from the heavens, he pulled the replica into his chest, buried his face into her Rose-scented hair; whispered a thousand oaths and a million regrets—

Lightning exploded around him, coursed through him and through her, crackled the air around him and his vision went white; his eardrums burst and bled.

All was dark and silent...

He felt raindrops on his face...or was he crying...?

“Rusty! Rusty! DAMMIT RUSTY!!” He felt the warmth of Curaga and a pounding on his chest.  
He gasped like he had been drowning and when he opened his eyes the figures above him were blurry and colorless. Slowly, Garnet’s worried face and Zidane’s panicked expression came into focus, as did the rest. Freya pulled him up to a sitting position by his shoulder plate. His body felt like a flan, boneless and weak.

“What happened?” He croaked out, looking around for Beatrix’s shade and seeing none.

“You baited her into her own attack. It destroyed itself, but you simply absorbed it!” Garnet praised, but grew grave as she continued, “Outlived it’s own ability. It was very foolish, Steiner. But effective.” She sighed deeply and stood. Zidane clapped him on the newly healed wound and Vivi tried to help him up anyway he could; trying to pull him by his arm and his boots slipping on the stone.

“Yeah, Rusty. It was pretty great. Scary, but great.” Zidane gave a thumbs up and looked to the path that manifested in the curtain of mist. As the others got ready to continue and made plans and rationed elixirs, Steiner looked around the old field of mismatched time and felt a somberness build in his chest. Nothing marked her here; not a single visage of the shade was seen.

“You didn’t...actually try to trick it, did you?” Vivi’s small voice broke through his melancholy, and he looked down to the black mage in surprise.

“No! Ah...no. I’m not any good at such trickery...I just,” He sighed deeply, slumping forward and letting his hands dangle where they would, “I didn’t want to fight her anymore. It is my greatest shame; the years I spent bullheadedly belligerent to her.” He stood with newfound vigor even as his body ached and burned.

“But when we return, I will remedy that.” Steiner declared with enthusiasm, and Vivi smiled in his little yellow eyes.

“Good! She seemed...nice. Back in Alexandria. When she’s not...y’know. Being scary.” Vivi admitted warily, and Steiner smiled despite the setting as they caught up with the group.

“That she is, Master Vivi. I should regale you with tales of when she isn’t terrifying.” He promised; he had more that he thought he did, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This idea came to me one day, and I thought it would have been cool to have seen snippets of each of the characters lives haunt them through Memoria like how Dagger saw her mother run to the boat. Then I thought of the fights with Beatrix the party had—and this happened.


	9. Foolproof Love Letter Scheme

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One letter and the night that changes everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because of course I had to write about THE scene!

‘ _When the night sky wears the moon as it’s pendant, I will await you by the dock.’_

What was this?! Steiner looked at the letter in his hand, examining the wonderful and unfamiliarhandwriting. A poem of some kind...? A love letter?

For whom? Who wrote it? It couldn’t have been for him...could it? Preposterous! He just found it. Who would leave something like this—

“Steiner?”

Her voice sent a shockwave up his spine; he almost jumped out of his metal shoes.

“Beatrix?!” He spun on his heel, wheeling around to see her standing hesitantly by the fountain.

He became acutely aware of the water trickling by in the Raza; the way the lamplight caught the color of her hair; his heart pounding in his ears. She looked the most unsure he had ever seen her, her hand rested on the stone; her shoulders were tense and her expression was...vulnerable.

He had seen the letter (now forgotten in his first), he knew her handwriting and it wasn’t hers, but she was here! Did she know he would be here? Did she...

Beatrix took a slight step forward, and his thoughts trailed off.

“I didn’t think you’d actually be here...” She admitted, a half-smile of disbelief. Steiner shook his head and took a step forward of his own; not really knowing why.

“Beatrix I...ah...I was just...” Steiner pointed uselessly; like he was making some point that he couldn’t remember. His gaze was locked on her face; the amber color of her eye.

“Steiner,” She half laughed under her breath, shaking her head, “I don’t really know what I expected or even if, no I suppose it doesn’t matter.” Her fingers strummed on the stone as she stammered through. Beatrix! Lost for words! Wait. Expected? What did she expect from what?

His next step scuffed against the fountain, he reeled back a bit from the shock. He heard her huff a chuckle. Steiner looked up to see her close the distance, well within arms reach. Her fingers still trailed on the etchings of the fountain, her gaze searching his own for...he didn’t know what. She had never looked at him like this before. It sent a tremor down his chest to settle into his abdomen.

If he hadn’t been in his armor he was sure he could feel her heat.

He reached his hand out to cover hers, and just as their fingers met—

ACHOO!!

Several things happened at once.

Steiner about-faced in a flash; whipping around to see Baku—that King of Thieves! Waltzing up the courtyard like he was allowed! Interrupting—

“You ruined the whole scene!” A small voice bellowed. Steiner twirled to see Eiko in a fuss; Marcus and Blank cackling to themselves at her consternation; and Baku confused and annoyed. What were they all doing in the courtyard?! Unattended?!

No! Beatrix!

Steiner spun to where she was seconds ago—where she was so close! She was gone, because of course she was! He thought he saw the edge of her ivory coat tail whip around the hedges of the northern tower—

“Nice one, boss! Way to wreck the best thing to happen since Lord Avon.” Marcus laughed, coming up the steps with a chuckling Blank by his side. Baku voiced a nose-stuffed sound of confusion.

“Yeah, that was almost a great thing you got in the way of. About time they did something.” Blank stated. Eiko came sprinting up behind the thieves to pull on Steiner’s gauntlet.

He looked down at the girl in what felt like a haze.

“You have my letter! How did you get my letter?! That wasn’t for you!” Eiko pulled at his fist still clenched around the parchment.

“Wha-what are you—your letter! This was your doing!” Steiner exclaimed and lifted his hand, lifting the small child with it. She dangled with determination and glared at him as she held fast.

“Heheh! Your letter that I left here on the steps thanks to Rust-a-Lot?” Baku guffawed and slapped his leg with mirth. Blank scoffed and punched the ringleader in the shoulder.

“Then Bea must have dropped it on me!” He announced with a large grin. Marcus joined in their chuckling. Steiner looked back and forth between these buffoons—and the little girl thrashing in midair hanging from his raised arm.

“Give! It! Back!” She shrieked. “I spent an hour on this!”

Steiner dropped the crumpled parchment and Eiko dropped with it. She landed on her feet deftly and began smoothing out the letter. The thieves were doing their heckling, the girl was yelling at him that, “You wrinkled it! I can’t give it to him now!”—too many noises, too many—

Beatrix. He had to find her—fix this—explain—talk to her.

“Hey Rusty,” He heard Marcus’ calm voice break through and he turned to look at the thief, “She went that way.” Marcus pointed ahead of them, giving Steiner a smirk and a nod. The knight turned on his heel and marched without a word.

“Hey Rust-a-lot! No kicking us out?”

“Boss! Don’t encourage him!”

***

Why did she go to the northern tower? This didn’t connect anywhere! There was Breirecht’s stairs that he perpetually climbed above; the dungeons below; the soldiers quarters in the back. Nevermind; she could rot in a cell for the rest of her life in the sheer embarrassment of what just happened.

How DID that happen?! What convinced her to even show up in the first place?! Desperation. That was it. It was desperation and—

Beatrix marched up the steps of the tower, passing the old knight without a glance, having no where else to go and she could always throw herself from the roof if the shame was too much to bear. Her brother would be heartbroken but he would understand! She was beyond mortified, beyond humiliated, beyond hurt—

They weren’t supposed to be there. It was just her and him and he was looking at her like she was...like he never had before. And then!

When she rushed through the door it was like she crashed up out of drowning, a gasp and a growl tearing from her throat and she slammed the tower roof door shut behind her. She raked her hands through her thick hair—a gauntlet caught and wayward strand and pulled—she tossed the both of her armored gloves to the floor; they clattered on the stone at her feet.

Beatrix fell to pacing—pacing! Why did she go? Why did she wish somewhere from within her that he would have been there—what was happening to her?!

With a horrified groan she leaned against the battlement and peered down at the courtyard below. The thieves were making their way across the river, the girl with the horn was nowhere to be seen, and naturally, because fate hated her at the moment, she couldn’t see Steiner anywhere. Which meant he could be anywhere and the only hope she had was if she heard him.

The obnoxious clanking sound that had haunted her every damn step for ten years came up from behind her. Even through the door and several dozen feet of stone! Beatrix should have cast Silence on Breirecht as she passed him—the door gingerly swung open.

She should have braced the door with something; she should have never have been in the courtyard in the first place; she should probably just jump—

“Beatrix?” She heard her name in his voice and didn’t dare turn around. There was a flush coming up her chest all the way to her forehead and she really didn’t want him to see any of it.

“You can just kick me off the tower, if it’s all the same to you, Captain. I seem to have lost my courage,” She said. Her voice sounded very far away in her ears, as well as his humorless cuff of a laugh. She heard the door close but she kept her gaze locked on the moonlight skittering off the Raza.

“I thought I could join you...ah! In hiding from the brigands! Not in...jumping. I don’t advise it. I tried getting down from up here before and, well. I slammed into the side of an airship,” He fumbled his way through; and she smiled in spite of herself.

“That was a magnificent feat of almost-flight, Captain.” She admitted. She heard him sigh, heard him clank up beside her and lean against the battlements much like herself. He was to her right, so just out of her limited periphery.

Beatrix would have been deafened by silence if not by the roaring in her ears.

“So ah...you didn’t write that letter, I take it?” His voice broke through, and the wheels in her head stopped like a chocobo that found a gyshal green.

“What?” She asked quickly, turning to catch him in her vision.

“Eiko said it was hers...which meant when I found it, it wasn’t meant for me, so...”

“You didn’t leave that letter by the dock this afternoon,” Beatrix breathed with a growing sense of horror. Steiner shook his head with a confused expression, and her heart sank into the pit of her stomach. She looked down to her hands and clasped them to keep from fidgeting.

“From what I understand, Baku had it, and then...you had it, and then Blank got it, somehow?”

“It fell from my coat on the balcony from the Queen’s chambers. I have a tear in my pocket I’ve been meaning to fix for weeks,” Beatrix admitted and dropped her head into her hands despondently. Perhaps the theatrics ran in the family after all.

“Ah. You thought it was...from me?” He ventured tentatively.

“I don’t know anymore...” Beatrix groaned miserably into the cradle of her arms.

“I couldn’t write that well. My hand presses too hard and I would have missed some predicate somewhere,”

“Was there even a predicate in that letter?” She lifted her gaze up.

“If there was, I’d have missed it.” He smirked.

“Well, I haven’t seen how you write on courtly matters. I didn’t recognize the hand, only that you were the last one by the dock.” Beatrix ran a hand through her hair to get it back into place, his rather easy banter settling her more that she thought possible. He hadn’t mocked her yet; well, not cruelly.

“And you found it lying there...what did you think when you saw me, then? You must’ve had some clue?” She asked, pulling herself back up into a leaning position. Steiner huffed a laugh.

“I am honestly not sure. I saw the note, no one was around, I thought ‘It couldn’t have been left here for me!’ And then I heard your voice. The rest...” He knit his brows as he gazed at her worrying fingers.

“The rest...?” Beatrix asked in a bewilderment that confused her. What about the rest, Beatrix?

“The rest was wishful thinking, I suppose.”

Her heart stopped—like she’d been struck by the spell itself.

“Wishful thinking?” Her voice broke, her throat was dry.

“Wistful! Wistful thinking! Ahem.” Steiner corrected with shock, coughing into his shoulder and her growing panic settled into crushing disappointment.

Disappointment?!

“I suppose it would be a terrible thing to get a love letter from me,” Beatrix mused as she picked at a fingernail with another, eyes engrossed in the task.

“No, not entirely,” Steiner admitted, shaking his head at the view as he turned around, sliding down the battlement to a seat on the stone. Her gaze snapped to him examining the door like she was her nails, previously.

“It could have been some paramour only after my commission, after all. Weimar deals with that a lot, at least that’s what he boasts.” Steiner removed the trusty helm with its wayward white feather, pushing back his mail hood and scratching at the top of his head. Beatrix could make out where some of his coffee black hair was going gray—small streaks of white salted the whirl at his crown.

“A Captain’s retirement is worth more than his, definitely, his pursuers would be better off going after you,” Beatrix agreed, even if the answer wasn’t satisfying.

“A General’s is better.”

“Oh, much better. I’ll have an estate if I live long enough to retire.” The banter was easier, better than whatever ghost was between them; her lungs could fill freely.

“A masterful estate, yes. But to answer your question, no. It wouldn’t have been so bad. If you had written it, I mean. I doubt it would have been for me,” Steiner finished, picking up one of her discarded gauntlets and placing it by his helmet. Beatrix turned on her heel and slid down the stone wall, sitting down beside him with a long sigh.

“I don’t know about that, Adelbert. I thought that it was yours, after all,” She offered shakily, pulling her knees up to her chest. Her hands set in her lap, easier to focus on then the man at her side.

“Why did you think that? That I wrote it, I mean?” He asked incredulously. Beatrix looked up at him gingerly and shook her head.

“I heard your voice, saw the letter. It never occurred to me it could be anyone else,” She raised a brow in surprise at her own admission. “Never occurred to me at all that anyone else would.”

Beatrix folded her fingers together; stopped worrying them.

He was looking at her. She could always feel it when he was looking at her.

“I suppose I felt the same way. Even if the note didn’t make any sense for it to have been intended for me. There isn’t...Ah, I guess there never was anyone I thought it could be.” Steiner murmured, finding her other tossed gauntlet and setting it with its pair.

Beatrix knit her own brows, not sure whether to feel relieved or terrified that this...thing that grown between herself and the man at her side wasn’t a figment of her imagination; wasn’t some shade of her creeping and intense loneliness. The blush that had settled on her chest bloomed back up to her face, and she scratched at her eyebrow to conceal of it what she could.

He was still looking at her—she could feel it like the rush of blood in her skin.

“Anyone else you thought it could be?” She asked lowly, anything to banish the stillness in the air. The flutter in her stomach.

“What?” He sounded dazed, like he had been struck by Shock all over again.

“The letter could have been from anyone. Zephyr or the new girls on my squad or some doting towns woman.” Beatrix gestured behind them and to the rest of Alexandria.

Steiner shook his head. “No. Most women don’t notice me quite like that. Ah...come to think of it, maybe they do; but I suppose I don’t. Notice them, anyway.” He said it like he was puzzling out something, untying a knot or sharpening a chip out of a blade.

“But you notice me.”

“I,” He nodded in that same questioning daze and sighed deeply, “I notice you. I’ve always noticed you,” He scrunched his nose like it was something he had known all along and her heart felt like it slipped, “And with the last few weeks...”

“What a pair we are,” Beatrix almost snickered behind her hand, shaking her head at their foolishness, “One eleven year old girl’s crush and we are disarmed. Fumbling over whatever this is. Whatever it’s grown into,” She murmured, half to herself. She heard him huff a small laugh.

“Indeed. You could do better. What was his name, that last fop that strutted around you?” Steiner asked with a growing grin and Beatrix’s heart fluttered in both a shy glee and an ashamed terror.

“Terrance Cartwick DeVry the fourth.”

“That was his name!”

“You didn’t like him; you told me so.”

“I did not and I did. I thought him a cad only after the prestige of wielding you as his wife.”

“Why did it matter? We weren’t what we are now.” Whatever that was, Beatrix thought. Friends? Almost lovers? Comrades who were very, very confused?

“I didn’t think he was a good man, and you always deserved that much, at least. Even when I thought you were being annoying and too arrogant for your own good.” He smiled, looked at her directly, and for the first time since Treno she simply looked at him; the dark hazel of his eyes, his long eyelashes she liked to pick on him about...

She was always very proud, indeed. And while any other time, even a few months ago, she would have been incensed at his words; she couldn’t remember the last time she truly felt agitated or angered beyond reason at him. It had been years since she even pondered over why she simply didn’t like him.

When did that ghost of resentment wither? When did he become so part of her life that when he was gone with Garnet; she noticed and she realized she didn’t like it? When did she start to consider that Steiner might have been right over too many things? It had to have been before the Red Rose; before Cleyra. Before she had been blinded by that same arrogance and ambition and—

Steiner stood abruptly, picking up his helm and turning toward the city, his countenance tense. Beatrix snapped up in a start and followed his gaze.

A dragon!! And not any dragon, some black Fafnir of deific portion, tearing fireballs through their home!

“Her Majesty!” They both shouted in unison, spinning from their posts to find their Queen and face this new threat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FF9 has always been a fun fable to me, so while Steiner and Bea’s one love letter incident set them up for falling for each other is comical and wonderful, I thought of it as a ‘there was probably more to it than this one letter’ kind of deal. And perhaps that’s what this entire fic really is; a long winded exploration of this zany, silly, fantastical farce of a scene.
> 
> Oh! And I made a continuity error here; Bahamut’s attack is *after the love letter night, but I wasn’t sure how to end this, so I think I may just keep it. Let me know what you think! If you’d like an awkward day after the night, anyway.


	10. Those who we protect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the two knights face wave after wave of monster; Beatrix sees the same force from Steiner that won her a historic victory years ago. In the end, it saves her life; even if the great Rose General cannot save everything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every character has that one moment where they auto-Trance; and due to the power of it, perhaps that once is all they need.

“ _Beatrix and I were prepared to give our lives...I don’t know what happened to her.” -Steiner in Lindblum, shortly after the events of Kuja’s attack on Alexandria._

There were too many of them! They kept coming; crawling over rooftops, plunging through alleys, two by two by two. She had faced a hundred knights before; but that was different! Each of these was worth far more than a mortal man—and the power she had accessed ten years ago...she couldn’t do that again.

Steiner only slowed down when a creature crashed into him and one of its horns pierced his armor. Beatrix had been lucky until that point, but dodging was always her forte. Something that actually got through the fortress that was Steiner’s armor was a problem. A very big problem indeed.

“We can’t keep this up! We can regroup at the castle!” Beatrix urged as fires and dragons roared overhead. Steiner growled as he turned to fell another of the beasts.

“No! I will protect our people. I will protect her majesty. And...” He turned to look at her, the both of them battered, bruised, and sweating.

“I will protect you, Beatrix! This is what I have sworn!” He roared over the din of an oncoming pair of the fiends; he raised his blade and matched their battle cry with his own—

There was a burst of gold and red light. Quicksilver lightning exploded around the knight at her side; and she almost jumped away at the influx of power.

Trance. This! She remembered this! Only—

His armor looked like something out of a romance, archaic and magic. Runes flared at the edges and the parts of him that had not been plated before, now was. His face was covered in a visor and his very being shined with blue and white light.

The monsters were not impressed; nor deterred. They fell all the same.

Beatrix kept up with the Captain blow for blow, but the strength that came from the knight could only be matched by a Thunder Slash or Stock Break.

Two more came and left their bodies with their fellows; Beatrix ushered townsfolk to safer areas and Steiner, still engulfed in light, kicked open blocked doors or lifted a beam out of the way of a window so the people inside could escape.

Then more light exploded from the castle. Mythical Alexander and his wings of pure white sent missiles of energy cascading through the town—monster after monster turned to dust and the dragon in the sky burst into flame and sparks. Steiner never left her; even as he said nothing and his face was hidden by steel.

And just when Beatrix thought the day had been saved...

A red eye parted the clouds above the castle—a beam of destruction—Holy Alexander blasted by the phenomenon coming from the center of that hurricane.

“Adelbert—” She brought a hand up to his plated chest as the wave of catastrophe started to pull the buildings apart, headed straight for them!

He stepped in front of her; wrapped his arms around her; like the wings that failed in front of the castle—she didn’t want to die here but she was going to die here—they would both fall here—light and heat and fire and pain—

She thought she heard him scream her name...but then nothing.

***

She awoke to a throbbing agony in her left side. She tried to curl her fingers and they felt like they had rusted knuckles. There was sand in her mouth, and cotton in her ears...at least that’s what it felt like.

“Hey! Haagen! She’s waking up!” She heard a male voice excitedly exclaim from beneath whatever fog she fell under.

“She’s up?! General?” Another man...they sounded vaguely familiar...

“I told you. She’d wake up when she was ready to.” Zephyr. That was a voice she knew well.

“Yeah—even Bahamut can’t keep her down!” Maia. Then the men...

“Oh hey, there she is! C’mon sleeping beauty, follow the sound of Haagen’s anxiety attack!” Breirecht.

Wait. Alexandria. Steiner! The Queen!

She sat up before her vision could even clear. Her one working hand flew to her covered eye out of habit and the world slowly bloomed into light. Beatrix saw the worried faces of her troupe, and of the Pluto Knights.

“Adelbert.” She choked. Looking down at herself, she was under military issued quilts and military bandages, her left hand swollen and purple and a stitch on her left side that didn’t go away. If she was like this but whole...he had to be alright, didn’t he?

“Well,” Haagen—the tall one, scratched at his neck and looked over the room as he spoke,

“He’s in one piece and off with the princess. Went to Lindblum last we heard...”

This was the quarters in the main castle; where the Pluto Knights were boarded. There were spartan furnishings and check lists on the wall...a half-melted pile of plate mail in the corner that she could only barely recognize. Was that...? It couldn’t be!

“Yeah. Yeah that was what we pulled the two of you out of. Don’t know how either of you managed to survive that, but you did.” Maia finished her thought for her as Beatrix tried to piece back his armor into one suit in her mind. There were tears and buckles and runes that had never been on it before...and it was in absolute ruins.

“The Queen?”

“Like we said, in Lindblum.” One of the other Pluto Knights spoke up.  
At least she was alive; thank all that be. But the townsfolk!

“What about the rest of the city?” Beatrix swung her legs over the side of the bed to stand, only to get pushed back by Maia.

“The Pluto Knights managed to save the western bank of the city. We’re still rummaging for survivors of the initial attack.” Zephyr added in, standing to hold vigil with the men. Beatrix looked at them with a growing wariness; one of the knights was looking at her like she was on her death bed.

“What?” She commanded, looking at each of the eight Pluto Knights in turn.

“You were in rough shape, General. We’re worried is all. Captain told us to look after you, we had to pry you both out of the mess his armor became.” Weimar, the one that was always chasing her girls around, spoke up.

Beatrix huffed and tossed a tangled lock of hair over her shoulder. Steiner...

“Alexandria is doing about as well as I am, I take it?” Beatrix asked Maia, who nodded as she looked to the others. They were silent, forlorn, and their expressions matched.

“Alright. Wounded or not, we keep going.” Beatrix stood despite Maia’s weak protest. “The townsfolk need us. What the Captain and I saw last night was only part of the city, so we need to organize and regroup. Continue looking for survivors and ways to sustain the ones that have been wounded. Utilize any citizen that wasn’t harmed to assist those that were. We need to—” Beatrix’s hiss of pain interrupted her; she put too much pressure on her left leg and pain like a pike stab flared in her ribs. Breirecht reached a hand to steady her, but Zephyr pushed it down.

Beatrix didn’t know who to thank at the moment.

“We need to work quickly. You all know what needs done. Do it.”

“But General—”

“No. This is bigger than any of us; and our people come first. I’ll get a report on the Queen and Captain and what’s happening there; we focus on Alexandria. It’s all we can do, so let’s do it.” She ordered with finality, and the Pluto Knights, for once, all saluted in solidarity and one motion of crunching chainmail. Zephyr and Maia gave their salutes with grim smirks, and each knight filed out in turn.

As Beatrix sat back down when her world spun, she saw Breirecht out of the corner of her eye, almost through the door.

“Good to see you made it, General.” The older man graced her with a grin; a fat sight better of an expression then when they last talked. When he was gone, Beatrix took her shaky steps toward the mountain of twisted steel that was Steiner’s plate.

His helmet was cracked down the side and the feather was black...he almost told her that he...

Her fingers traced the runes forever etched into the metal as it sat unnaturally on the top of the heap.

Beatrix could not focus on herself or even Steiner at the moment. She had to make sure Alexandria could stand again. Perhaps this service would redeem some of the damage she had done. She owed it to her Queen, and her Captain that saved her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really love side characters. The bumbling Knights of Pluto are great, and I can’t wait to throw them into more chapters as well as the members of Squad Beatrix.


	11. Conflict Resolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the wake of an impending tragedy, Steiner and Beatrix navigate past an era of contention for the sake of their own sanities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ll try to start dating these so they’re easier to navigate. For reference, the game starts in January, 1800.

Summer, 1794

The day was too hot, and Steiner felt like he was being steam boiled alive in his plate mail. His men were in formation behind him, their postures melting in the blazing sun. Alexandria got unbearably stifling in the summer, despite it being far above the mist that drenched the rest of the continent. However, it was situated on a lake, basically, which meant that even with no mist it became humid and muggy all through the late summer months. 

Steiner kept his Parade Rest even as a mosquito managed to wiggle its way to his neck and a bead of sweat ran down his nose. It was one thing that the Captain was exceptionally good at; keeping his stance whether on the field of the castle or field of battle. 

He could not say that for his men. 

All five of them were half bent, heads bowed, or slouching very unprofessionally. He turned on his heel to bellow at Weimar, his newest recruit.

“William Weimar! Stop falling into your own boots!” 

“Sorry Cap! It’s just...” Oh, he was already mouthy. Most of his knights were; they were second sons or bastard sons or fourth-cousins twice-removed from the nobles and royalty, and thought that the military and knighthood were hobbies that would make them rich, famous, and renowned like something out of a play by Lord Avon! 

“It’s WHAT, Weimar?!” 

“When are we gonna be able to get outta formation, Cap?” He whined, tossing his head back in misery as the sun continued its relentless tyranny of heat on their armor. 

“When we relinquish this wing of the castle to the General’s Squad, as per our monthly duties!” Steiner answered with gusto, spinning on his heel to face forward again. There was a collective groan from behind him. But with the King sick and taken to bed lately...they needed to be more in tip top shape than they had ever been! So he barked at them to cease their bellyaching!! 

“I’m getting too old for this, Cap,” Breirecht bemoaned for the eighth time that week. 

“Oh guys, here they come!” Haagen called out, and Steiner looked over his shoulder to scowl at the lot of his Pluto Knights. He’d have them running ragged for the rest of the day! 

Squad Beatrix strolled up with varying speed, all six of them eyeing his knights with jeers or with scoffs. Zephyr was the one taller than Steiner was; dark haired and bright eyed and built like a trebuchet—but she was the only one besides Maia that gave him proper salutes! Catherine was an acrid woman; and the rest were so green he doubted they had seen actual combat yet. 

General Beatrix—by God she had been General for four years now—marched in front of her troupe and called them into proper formation. All six fell into line, in unison, at the same time with matching precision and uniformity. 

Steiner would have been impressed if Beatrix hadn’t given him a blank and cold look, and any respect their actions might have garnered dried up in the heat of Steiner’s gaze locked on the General’s. 

“General.” Steiner snapped to attention and gave a sharp salute, as necessary when handing over a responsibility to another officer. Beatrix rolled her eye and saluted in return; and in Steiner’s opinion she needed to work on it. 

“Captain. I assume the west tower is in working order? No structural issues, you’re not falling through the floor or collapsing a half-wall?” She asked with a stilted grin as she mocked him in front of his men and her cadre of snickering delinquents. 

“No. Everything is immaculate! As usual!” Steiner rebutted with a knit brow and a growing scowl. The more upset he got the more belligerently...smirk-y she became! And now was one of those times! 

“Oh good. Then it will forever stay that way,” Beatrix began and Steiner scrunched his nose in confusion as she continued. “From now on, the Knights of Pluto will keep to the main castle and grounds. This tower is no longer under your jurisdiction.” She finished with that self-assured arrogance that resonated off of her like her perfume in the humidity. 

What?! The Knights of Pluto had been getting shunted more and more off to the side. They were never very well respected or funded or used to their potential, and yes it bothered him always and more substantially now that the king had taken ill, but this was getting out of hand! 

“Our jurisdiction is the Castle, the grounds, and the town proper! It’s always been that way—you can’t just shove us off into some corner—” Steiner pointed excitedly around the premises, and Beatrix’s brown eyes lit into amber as his blood pressure rose. 

“If you have a problem, you can take it up with the Queen, Captain. This isn’t my call, Steiner.” 

“Of course not! *Grrr*. The Queen knows best, after all.” Steiner acknowledged through clenched teeth and gave his final snapped salute, motioning his men to turn and march away. Haagen’s squawking armor led them. But Beatrix raised a hand to halt their retreat, and Steiner tilted his head in confusion.

“I did not dismiss you, Captain.” Beatrix remarked coolly, eyebrow raised in challenge. Steiner did not feel like playing with her today. Not after another disappointment like this!

“You didn’t need to, General. Your presence in the tower is enough. We’ve more ground to cover, and the west wing is in your capable hands,” Steiner parroted; biting his tongue from saying anything more scathing than that. 

“More than capable, and you are required to be properly dismissed. I would think that you, above all people, would have some love and respect for protocol.” Her coolness turned to formality, her gaze turned dark and her tone clipped. 

“The salute and file out was enough—” It was too hot of a day and he had too little patience for her antics. Maia’s ever present and easy smile wilted away out of the corner of his eye. 

“But you will file out when I say you can file out, Captain. As your direct commander—” Beatrix squared her shoulders, and her hands turned into fists at her sides. Direct commander?! He answered to the Queen! She was always such a feisty little upstart—!!

“You DO NOT outrank me, GENERAL!” 

The knights around froze; preternaturally. Even Haagen’s armor stopped squeaking. 

“CAPTAIN.” She roared, taking a step forward and up to match his height, her eye blazing into his. It caught fire in the direct sunlight—burning into him. 

“Might I remind you what you are in relation to me?!” Beatrix practically snarled at him, livid and petulant in an instant. From stoic and cold to a fury, was what she was! She took a step back, schooled her expression, closed her eye, breathed deeply, and quickly pointed to the tower door. 

“I need to speak to you off-line,” She seethed and stormed into the tower, not looking at him as he boiled in indignant fury. He looked at the knights beside them with mouths all agape. 

“DISMISSED. ALL OF YOU.” He bellowed and waved to the lot of them, his voice booming like a thunderclap and his men scampered off double-time, but in good formation! Squad Beatrix almost jumped out of their skins—well, except Maia. Who calmly shepherded the shocked gaggle away, glaring over her shoulder at him. She paused as her troupe marched, and marched up to him to point a finger into his face. 

“You two better get your shit in line! We ain’t got no time for this!” She hissed, and he blustered a dozen little sounds in counter. 

“She’s impossible! She’s being—” 

“It doesn’t matter, Adelbert! She’s still General! And a young one, too! The king isn’t doing well and you aren’t making it easy! Fix this, Steiner. I mean it. For both of your sakes and ours. Or I will whip you to kingdom come, boy, I swear it!” Maia finished her tirade, spun on her heel, and followed after her troupe. A younger member seemed to have lagged behind, tried to eavesdrop, and the older woman cuffed the recruit over the ear as they left. His knights were probably already half way through the castle by now. 

Dammit! He cursed himself and kicked at the stone, slamming open the tower door when he got to it. Beatrix was standing rod-straight, her arms crossed, glaring at a point on a table so hard Steiner thought it would break under the pressure. 

“General.”

“Don’t start that with me, Steiner.” She began in a clipped tone, turning on him in a rage barely contained by her eye. He huffed and hissed through his teeth. 

“What do you want from me, Beatrix?!” He threw up his arms and she stalked toward him only to slam the door shut with a clatter. The room was barely bigger than a small foyer, the table with a checklist ledger was the largest thing in the space besides him. 

“Stifle your tone. This-this can’t happen. This needs to stop. You’ve been at this for years; no more. Do you understand me?” She spoke lowly and he could tell she was being as controlled as she could be, her native Treno formality breaking through the veneer of her impatience towards him. 

“What? Your blatant disregard of my office? I agree!” He scoffed, not moving an inch when her finger jabbed him in his bare arm below his shoulder plate. 

“No! No that’s not—why are you—enough. I’ve had enough. We do not have to get along, Captain. We do not have to like each other. We take great delight in despising each other most days—”

“I never said I despised you!” He interrupted and she jabbed him again as she kept going.

“You have an incorrigible way of showing it! Those are my soldiers out there—you cannot be insubordinate towards me in front of them!” She pointed wildly to the outside and he laughed bitterly. 

“No, no. I will shout this until it gets past that thick mane of yours; I am not your subordinate! You do not outrank me on these grounds!” He jabbed toward the ground with an excited hop, and his armor clanked loudly. Beatrix took another shuddering breath and fanned out her hands by her sides. 

“FINE! Just! This can NOT happen again! Our soldiers cannot see us fighting all the time! Do you understand that at least, Steiner?!” She growled at him, gesturing toward those grounds outside. He sputtered—she grew impatient and continued. 

“Our rank-and-files have to think we are a cohesive unit! If they see us fighting and undermining each other every step of the way then they do the same. We have soldiers that follow our lead, Adelbert! They need the leadership now more than ever!” Beatrix urged, staring at him as he inhaled sharply and eyed her critically. 

Damn her. She was right. 

“FINE.” He scoffed and tossed his head to the side, crossing his arms. He heard her exhale and she set her hands on her waist, shaking her head at the ground. Steiner remembered Maia’s words, and with how she looked less annoyed just to not fight with him at the moment...he nodded decisively. 

“We cannot allow the troops to fight amongst themselves. Not with the kingdom holding its breath. So we must set the example. Very well. Sound advice, General.” Steiner leveled his expression and stood to his height, going back to parade rest before her. She was still glaring at the ledger on the table, but her eye flicked up to him with a shimmer of disbelief. 

“Do not patronize me, Captain.” She simmered through her formality. He shook his head sharply. 

“It’s not sarcastic. We need to be aligned to better the morale of the castle knights. I agree.” He assured, looking down directly at her as he did. She sighed in what sounded like relief. 

“And we don’t order the other around in view of the women. Ah, men as well.” She continued with a quick correction, and Steiner huffed a laugh at her expense. 

“It is the closest thing I will get to an apology from you, so I will take it. Agreed.” 

Her eye darkened. “Never yell at me in front of my soldiers, even more so.” 

“Agreed.” He bit through with a raised brow. A terse cease-fire if he ever knew one. 

Beatrix looked up at him skeptically. He glared down at her. He presented his gauntleted hand in a gesture of solidarity, and she took it. A firm handshake! He expected no less from her. 

***

Later, the King lie on his deathbed, and Steiner has never felt so helpless as his princess cries herself to sleep in the library. The castle turns gray and dreary, and the somber tone carries over to everything he does. He and Beatrix never truly fight again—well, not in the same way that they have for the last five or six years. Their cease-fire turns into a simmering rivalry of little intensity, but it doesn’t stop the Knights of Pluto from being relegated to the main castle and towers only. Steiner convinces himself that it helps him to focus on his duties more and narrow his patrols. Beatrix resumes riling him up after the year has passed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a few more chapters based in-game coming soon, as I know that’s where a lot of the fun is!


	12. Depth Perception

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wounds never heal overnight. Beatrix is awarded General after a battle that changes the way she sees the world, and adjustment is a process.

1790

Beatrix fumbled the swing of Save the Queen, still too heavy in her hands, still foreign to her. The cross guard was a large, gaudy thing that made the end of the sword feel light even with its length. Save the Queen was expertly balanced, they said, precision crafted, artfully designed to challenge her wielder as much as her opponent. She was fickle, and impossibly sharp. Beatrix thought she was difficult on purpose; made to be different from other blades in weight and length and style simply for the bragging rights once her wielder became proficient. Save the Queen had quicksilver veins, like she danced in her hands as Beatrix moved. She taught Beatrix the blessed Seiken of holy knights; the legacy of Alexandrian Generals since Madeleine. 

Her vision was cloudy, exacerbated by the piercing sunlit day and the throbbing in her right eye socket that hadn’t ceased since her battle with scores and scores of knights. Since she was named General and since the former warrior could not walk without a cane. Beatrix groaned in frustration as she practiced against her dummy, wondering how Aveline ever used this blade to its best potential. She was missing every other swing, knowing she would be struck if she was facing a real combatant. 

Beatrix did not fight like the woman who bested one hundred knights single-handedly right now. 

“Y’know, dummies aren’t much of a challenge against a General, little lady,” An older woman’s voice called from behind her. Secluded as she was in her corner of the training grounds, Beatrix was learning that a General could be found anywhere in her castle, even when she hid from the masses. She turned about with a deep sigh and Maia was just outside of her periphery, making her over-correct with her spin in order to get the older knight in view. She almost tripped on the grass. THE GRASS. 

Maia bit back a noticeable chuckle. Beatrix flushed but tried not to take it personally. 

“I think that’s all I can handle at the moment, Colonel,” Beatrix huffed and flipped her hair over the shoulder it was sticking to in her exercise. Maia shook her head and strolled over to the dummy, kicking the post that held it up. 

“Don’t go feeling sorry for yourself, General. I’ve known plenty of women what lost appendages to battle and kept on,” She advised with a wry smirk, glancing over at Beatrix who sheathed the holy blade with a tentative reverence. She wasn’t used to the title, yet. Maia said it like it was second nature. 

“I’m not bemoaning my fate,” She lied. Beatrix always considered herself a humble person in comparison to her family, but she had her own vanity and pride. She had never been a nonce; she knew she was an attractive woman—and a scar that gouged her eye useless wasn’t something she wanted to see etched into her face. 

But most importantly, it threw off her balance, her judgement of distance, her perception of movement. It affected her swordsmanship and it was something she could not stand. 

Beatrix took in a breath to huff indignantly, “But I need to get back to full form. I have greater duties now, more responsibility. I can’t rest on my laurels when I miss every swing.” 

Maia shrugged. “You’ll have to start at the basics, General. Get used to doing small things again, and you’ll get the bigger things soon enough.” 

Beatrix scoffed, turning in place to look anywhere other than Maia. She wasn’t used to not being able to do something to her best, and she was not accustomed to being awkward and stilted in her swordsmanship either! 

“Don’t huff and puff about it, General. C’mon, let’s get some tea and sit down and figure out where to go from here,” Maia said over her shoulder, heading to the northern tower. Beatrix paused, her hand twitched to the hilt of Save the Queen, she eyed the dummy, and followed after her Colonel.

***

“Look, it won’t take you long to adjust. I’ve seen plenty of soldiers what dealt with battle injuries like yours be back to tip top shape in round six months,” Maia cheered with a bright smile in the darkened tower lounge. It connected to the dungeons and some of the North barracks, and so it had small rooms such as the one they were in for shift breaks and leisure downtime for the knights that patrolled or held overnight positions. 

Maia poured hot water from a kettle into her cup, setting the pot down and within Beatrix’s reach on their shared table. The small pot-bellied stove burped in the corner of the room. 

Beatrix looked at the kettle like it had teeth. Still, she reached forward tentatively and lifted the small pot, looking down at her porcelain cup as she hesitated in tilting her grip. Beatrix had poured tea before! This shouldn’t be as hard as it was! And yet, she couldn’t quite—see the blasted thing. It was like the tea cup was too close, too far, and she blinked as she could swear it swam around in front of her. 

She tilted her hand to dip the kettle—and felt hot water splash into her lap. 

Beatrix leapt away with a hiss, but managed to set the kettle back down. She didn’t pour the water directly onto herself—not like the last time—but she completely missed the teacup. The water flooded the table and trickled towards her to splatter on the stone below. Maia chuckled demurely and shook her head. Beatrix again huffed quickly out of her nose. 

“And how am I supposed to run an entire army like this, Colonel?!” She muttered through clenched teeth, peeling away her uniform where the water was still scalding. It steamed off of the clothes of her lap. 

Maia looked up at her with all seriousness, “You adapt to the shortcomings you have now,” She tossed a small towel to Beatrix, who caught it deftly and patted at her lap and the table. Her brow was heavy and her shoulders were taught as bridge rope as she gently cleaned the mess her sight had caused her to make. 

“I’ve seen a lot of women lose their eye, Bea,” Maia reminded coolly, blowing on the steam of her cup, “Some, both of ‘em. War leads to a lot of injury, and eyes are sensitive. You have to learn to compensate. And while it isn’t easy, it’s possible.” 

“I don’t want to compensate,” Beatrix almost spit the word, picking up the kettle, “I want to be the best. Like I was before this rendered me useless.” She went to tilt the kettle, and hesitated. 

“Grab the cup with your hand, and use that to steady your aim,” Maia instructed, poking the tea cup towards the younger brunette. Beatrix glared up at her, determined to be petulant to the end like she was towards most instruction. She could learn this on her own! But...  
She sighed, grabbed the cup instead. She had embarrassed herself enough today. 

With a steady pour, she managed not to make a complete splash this time. Beatrix smiled incredulously, moving the cup around with her hand still on it and moving her head to catch the movement. It was like...learning how to see all over again. 

“You have to know where you can see and where you can’t. Your hands, the length of your arm, they will help you. Distance and movement are gonna be hard, at first, but you’ll get it. Baby steps, is all,” Maia said with a smile, bringing her tea up to her lips. 

It was such a small victory, but it was one that Beatrix felt she needed. 

***

As the days went on, Beatrix grew accustomed and even familiar with Save the Queen. She was a debilitating task master, this blade, and Beatrix learned to relish the challenge. Her steps became better grounded, her balance more steady, her grip more comfortable, and her aim more accurate and as deadly as it ever was. 

Every good swordsman knew the old adage, “Slow is steady, steady is fast.” Beatrix simply had to start a few steadies backwards before she could be as fast as she was. She worked three times harder than she ever had; practiced in the rain and the slick and the mud. She trained in the searing sun and the overcast, windy nights. 

Beatrix had new roles to play, new shoes to fill, and General at the tender age of 18 was taxing even as she almost tripped over thresholds or ran a shoulder into a doorframe. 

Worse of it all, Adelbert Steiner gave her a wide berth and didn’t even comment when she stumbled down two steps and almost fell into the Queen. He even dared to steady her shoulder with his large lumbering paw. He had the nerve to look concerned. As if she needed his...his—pity! His leniency! How could he treat her like she was breakable! 

For her part, she was more acrid to him than she had ever been. She bit back at his every comment, sniped at his orders to her soldiers, fought with him over castle patrols and eligible promotions for their knights. Only then did he give as good as he got; only when he rose to her demanding nature did she have a modicum of respect for the fool. 

***

Steiner watched as the knights trained on the castle grounds one early wintry morning. It was useful for mountainous expeditions and the cold braced their spirits against hardships—at least, in Steiner’s mind that was how it worked. His knights had the frost-forsaken issue of their blades being stuck in their sheathes and Breirecht threatening that he would have a stroke if he pulled too hard. Blutzen and Kohel kicked snow at each other when he wasn’t looking. Haagen fumed in silent fury (he always did! Anger issues, this one). Weimar was too distracted by the women doing push-ups across the fairground. 

The Captain’s eyes drifted to a sudden commotion some dozen yards away, in a large swathe of space that mass skirmishes were drilled. He hollered at his men to keep up their...whatever they were floundering at, and made his way to some of the knights watching the large duel that took place. 

It wasn’t a mass skirmish, not really. It was Beatrix. In the middle of a fray of an infantry platoon all taking their turns slashing their blades, only to be parried or blocked and brought low. Beatrix was a flurry of motion, the General’s Blade an extension of her arm. 

A knight—Catherine! One of her own squadron, tried to flank her on her blindside, swinging her long sword at the General’s torso. Steiner’s breath caught, he took a step forward in spite of himself—but Beatrix spun preternaturally to screech Save the Queen against the feeble iron of Catherine’s blade, clipping the cross guard and making Catherine recoil from the force. Beatrix grinned at the stunned redhead, who took her riposte with little grace but stepped back. Steiner saw a flick of a scowl on Catherine, but the flashing of blades caught his attention again as Beatrix twirled around the field like a fox among chickens. 

“She’s going to be very good,” A soft but strong voice broke into his concentration beside him. Steiner snapped his gaze to the tall, black haired woman with piercing blue eyes who looked into the mock skirmish like he had. This one was...Zephyr! That was her name. She joined Aveline’s squad almost the same time Beatrix had. She never spoke to him. It was odd that she even spoke near him, at all! 

“No,” Steiner disagreed, shaking his head with a chink of chain mail. Zephyr made a sound that was close to a scoff. Steiner scrunched his nose, looking at the knight to his side. She glared down at him, her lips pursed and her eyes as fierce as Blizzaga, but he persisted. 

“She is already ‘very good’. Not many can duel sixteen Alexandrian knights at once!” He exclaimed over the clamor as Beatrix flipped Maia over her shoulder and sent the Colonel tumbling over the icy dirt. 

“Then what are you implying, Captain?” She said the word like how Beatrix called him ‘nonce’. 

Steiner humph’ed, his hands resting on his hips with a triumphant grin. “She is going to be the best that the continent has ever seen. The very best. By God, maybe she already is. Not that I would ever admit to such a thing to her face.” He nodded decisively and glared up at Zephyr, whose gaze had softened like the powdered snow. 

“Well said, Captain...” She trailed off, crossing her muscled arms and turning her attention back to a victorious Beatrix and a complaining Maia; the older woman swearing she threw out her back. Beatrix smiled brightly, lifting her comrade up and patting her shoulder. He hadn’t seen Beatrix so herself in...months. 

Steiner smiled at the scene, turning on his heel and marching off to yell at his men to at least try to stay in a formation. Undisciplined dilettantes! The lot of them! 

***

Zephyr never said a cross word towards Steiner ever again. When Beatrix asked about it, she merely said that “He is an honorable man.” Zephyr even managed to give him proper salutes; most of the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just thought this would be a cool little blurb about overcoming an obstacle. Beatrix is probably most well known for the eyepatch and the impossible boss fight; so I decided to touch base on what happens when someone, y’know, actually loses an eye. And how it’s kind of cool that she’s still an excellent swordsman despite the challenge. Losing an eye isn’t a temporary setback, it’s like losing a finger or a toe. 
> 
> I had originally put Steiner in Maia’s role, but felt it would throw off their later interactions too much. So I added him at the end, preserving their rivalry but eluding to future friendships. 
> 
> Anyway! Hope it was enjoyable all the same.


	13. Night’s Plutonian Shore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Knights of Pluto promise to be the last line of defense to the Princess, standing in the way of a murderous General and a power-mad Queen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title is a reference to how the Pluto Knights could have gotten their name; from Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Raven’. 
> 
> Deviates from the canon, but I like the ‘Brave but foolish’ troupe, so wanted to do more with that.

Spring 1800

He was too damn old for this, and those cigars he smoked occasionally were catching up to him! Breirecht ran as fast as his aching knees could carry him to throw his aging body against the hall’s main double doors. 

This week was not what he wanted in to be. The princess returned! But the Captain was jailed for it! Those Jesters were scurrying about, and finally; the truth was far worse than he could ever imagine. 

“She’s gonna be here any minute!” Haagen shouted beside him, pulling a heavy board through the looped handles of the doors. The older knight could almost hear Squad Beatrix seethe on the other side. 

“They’re already here, son.” Breirecht snarled and pulled at a decorated suit of armor to block the door further. Laudo and Mullenkedheim scurried for more debris to keep out the army pounding at the door. Weimar, Blutzen, and Kohel secured the other doors. Dojebon was directing the mismatched party of saviors toward the chambers of the Queen. 

He spun to see the Captain give a somber salute towards him; being pulled along by the blonde thief. Breirecht met his dark and somber eyes, saluting in return. They didn’t have much time; and if what the monkey boy said was true—then Brahne had gone mad and Beatrix followed right after her! 

He heard the Captain and his party clink away, and when the door was as stuffed with tables, chairs, and armor suits as they could fit to craft a makeshift wall, the eight knights huddled together in a phalanx formation. They were awful at drills, he thought to himself, but when the Gil was on the table, they were a force, they were! 

Weimar shrieked in terror as the door rumbled from a shockwave of power; the decorative armor’s helm went skidding past Laudo’s feet; and he bent down to lift it with a terrified reverence. 

“Well, gentlemen, it seems our time is up. I didn’t want to die a soldier,” He mused brokenly, and Haagen spit at the ground as his grip tightened on the hilt of his naked blade. 

“You’ll die a Knight of Alexandria, more than can be said for the knaves beyond the door.” The tall knight responded with vigor, and Breirecht almost wished that Steiner could see them now. 

“We’ve got to buy the Captain time, boys. Our blood has never had a higher worth than today!” The eldest knight encouraged, pumping his fist into the air and readying his stance. 

Another shockwave sent the makeshift barricade crumbling, and a massive blade cleaved through the gap in the double doors, coming down and slicing through the heavy board like it was made of cloth. 

One of the knights yelped in surprise, and Breirecht’s air was sucked from his lungs in fear. 

The doors were slammed open like he and his knights never even tried to block it. Standing in the frame was Zephyr, Squad Beatrix knight number three, as tall and foreboding as the Captain. Her bright blue eyes pierced underneath her helm, and she slung her claymore over her shoulder as she took three menacing steps forward. 

Breirecht felt Haagen and Weimar at his sides try to shrink away, but the old man locked his stance and kept them steady. If one of them faltered, the whole echelon fell apart. 

Zephyr stepped to the side, and in walked the woman that shook him to his core nonetheless. Beatrix flipped her hair, never looking up at any of them. Like they didn’t matter to her! 

“Zephyr, return to the Queen’s side. I’ll handle any traitors I come across.” She spoke evenly, unbothered, leveling her gaze directly at Breirecht. His hands shook, and his blade shook with them. Her face was an expressionless mask, her dark eye locked on him. 

The knight with the claymore gave a curt salute, glaring at the lot of them and leaving the knights of Pluto alone with the most dangerous swordswoman on Gaia. Breirecht wanted to call out to her for help or to stay or something! 

“This was a terrible idea,” Mullenkedheim muttered from behind Breirecht. One of the men hissed at him to “Shut up, Mul!” 

Beatrix huffed and shook her head, settling her hand on the hilt of her blade. A bead of sweat tickled down Breirecht’s neck, and his skin broke out into goosebumps. 

“I can’t argue with that, knight...whichever one you are,” She gestured vaguely to the group, “This is an ill conceived plot of treachery. You are betraying your countrymen and your Queen. Everything you have ever sworn to defend and serve. Step aside, and I might spare your lives.” She finished with decorum and ease. 

She made it sound so easy! Like they could just walk away and they wouldn’t be executed for even daring to cross her. Well...wouldn’t she? She’d just cut them down without any hesitation...right? 

“We can’t just let you pass, General. They jailed Steiner for doing his duty! For defending and serving his princess! We—” He started, but she cut him off before he could finish any outstanding soliloquy’s.

“Enough. You are nothing more than cronies and easily led fools. Step aside, this is your last chance. I say it again, and your lives are forfeit.” She took a step, readied her stance, and the group of them scurried back and scrunched into each other’s sides. 

Breirecht had served Alexandria faithfully for decades. Served the previous Captain of the Knights of Pluto before he fell in war. That Beatrix could doubt his honor—and Steiner’s! Had she truly thought so little of them?! 

“Te vim Ignum; FIRA!” He heard a cackling voice shout from behind them, and a searing blast of pain ignited on his back and sent him sailing onto his face. His sword clattered from his grip and his cheek scraped against the stone, and he could see Haagen’s limp form rag doll against the floor beside him. His helmet had rocked against the impact with the floor, and he shakily lifted his head. 

Breirecht was eye level with Beatrix’s boots. He half expected her to step on his head as she passed him. He watched her as she marched past his prone form, and he rolled onto his back, weakly lifting his arm in protest. 

The red and blue Jesters jabbered to the General about the thief and the Dragoon knight and the Captain besting then, armed with their own Black Mage. That they had abducted the princess now, and were running away from the Queen’s justice. Breirecht sneered in disgust.   
“Don’t do this, Beatrix. Don’t...they’re not...the captain’s not a traitor...” He mumbled out, and she turned to look down at him. 

“Get to the Queen’s side, jesters.” She ordered to the clown-faced sorcerers that blasted them from behind. Her gaze never left his as she spoke. 

“I pray you’re right, Breirecht. Because if not, I will not hesitate.” She said coldly, flipping her hair as she spun on her heel. Mullenkedheim growled from the ground while Weimar wheezed and Laudo groaned. Blutzen and Kohel tried to help each other sit up; Dojebon and Haagen weren’t moving. 

“Heartless murderer—” One of them growled from the ground. 

Beatrix might have paused, she might have almost tilted her head, but Breirecht blacked out before he could be sure. 

“You fools aren’t worth my blade...” He heard from somewhere far away. 

***

Later, he and his fellow knights are thrown into the dungeons. Breirecht learns that Steiner and Beatrix have both turned on Queen Brahne, and the Knights of Pluto are burning with curiosity and hope. He doesn’t know what will come; he half expects to be executed soon—but the princess lives. And with her, the true spirit of Alexandria. 

He could die an old, happy knight knowing that his Captain and General saved her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love the Pluto Knights; and so trying to fill them out more. Also trying to do the same for ‘Squad Beatrix’; but they’re OC’s so could end up being less compelling. What does anybody think? Like em’ or no?


	14. Out of the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiding in Treno leaves our knights pondering over many things; and coming to conclusions about themselves they never considered.  
> Or; Steiner wakes like he has for several nights, prompting he and Freya to find common ground.

“ _Having sworn fealty, must I spend my life in servitude?” -Dilemma, Adelbert Steiner._

Metal clashed—Save the Queen scattered sparks across shoulder plates—helmet broken and feather blackened—The Queen’s broad smile turned into a wicked grin, her fat, purpled fingers curled into raven black hair—the princess slept, perhaps in death, on a bed of wilted roses—he dropped his sword, it clattered on the floral carpet. A sharp slice of pain where his neck met his shoulder—

Steiner gasped awake, his eyes snapped open and fought to adjust in the dark. He was facing the door of the rickety shack that acted as their haven in Treno, one of the myriad nests of Tantalus. It was small, simple, and utilitarian, and he moved his gaze around the small space.

The lamplight from outside filtered in through a shuttered window, slices of gold were the only illumination. A small lantern was unlit on a side table; Freya slept, cross armed, in a hammock held aloft above the space at the foot of the bed, a chest beneath her. He hoped she slept peacefully as his blood roared in his veins. He could feel his heartbeat in his neck.

He felt movement against his back and almost leapt with a cry. But Beatrix simply shifted, and he turned his head to look behind him. She was curled into herself, as she normally was, facing the wall that the bed was set against. Her back was braced against his, and it struck him as abnormal—even in a single bed, she usually shoved herself against the wooden wall than touch him, and he didn’t blame her. Sometimes he shared the sentiment.

Like now, when he wanted to crawl out of his own skin.

It wasn’t her—it was the clash of metal. The princess gone and unaccounted for. The story of the attack on Lindblum that ricocheted through Treno like a saucy new rumor...

Steiner got up as smoothly as he could, ignoring the shudder of his limbs as he did. A sheet tangled around his forearm and he pulled at it to release him. It held fast. With a jolt of panic he shook his hand vigorously, the sound of the sheet piercing in the dark. He stopped as he held back a hiss of impatience and scratched at the hair growth on his jaw.

Gingerly untangling it as his eyes adjusted, he stretched the fabric over the sleeping General as gently but quickly as he could. She shifted again—his breath caught—but she didn’t move.

With a small sigh of relief, he turned and stepped lightly to the door, pulling it open with a bare creak and squeezing his large frame through the smallest opening he could manage. He thought he saw Freya’s eyes open under her shaggy bangs, but he was not anxious to meet her gaze and closed the door quietly behind him.

The sound of the docks; the water lapping, the boats clunking against the warf, the people that laughed drunkenly and never went to sleep—all that cacophony hit him at once, and his grip tightened on the handle of the door.

He pressed his sweating brow against the cool of the waterlogged wood, and breathed in through his nose. His arms still shook and his knees felt weak, but he faced the docks and took several decisive steps toward the water.

Steiner never understood how Haagen felt calm watching the river by the castle. Haagen had a quick temper and a stormy temperament, and often spent time by the water to soothe himself. Steiner wondered where the man was now.

He wondered after all his men. Were they in the dungeons that he and Marcus escaped? Had they been executed by the Queen already? Or were they left down in a damp cell to rot? Breirecht wasn’t a young man—a few weeks in a cell could kill him. Laudo would languish and write woeful poetry, probably his best yet. Blutzen and Kohel would try to pick the locks, dig a tunnel, probably end up flooding their escape route. Weimar would spend all day flirting with his guards. Dojebon and Mullenkedheim would exercise almost every minute and talk about getting tattoos like the convicts they were. Steiner wanted to smile, but his eyes watered and his throat seized as he thought about them. He hoped Haagen could hear the river, wherever he was. He hoped the guards kept Breirecht somewhere dry, warm, fitting for his decades of service.

He pressed his hand to his face, leaning on the railing of the dock and tried to shut out the racket of the world. No one needed to see a grown knight sob.

‘So what will you do, Sir Knight?’ He asked himself through the din of the city. What could he do? His oaths of service were null, void, and he was disgraced and dishonored as long as Queen Brahne lived and Garnet was in hiding.

The princess...he worried. And that was a massive understatement. But she was safe as long as she was with the thief and Master Vivi. Well, for the moment. With Lindblum under occupation by Alexandria after an Eidolon attack like what happened to Cleyra, they couldn’t hide there. Where else could they go?

There was so much he didn’t know!What was the Queen doing now? Where was she? What was going on?!

“You need to get some sleep sometime, Steiner.” Freya’s voice interrupted his spiraling thoughts and his hair stood up on the back of his neck. He gripped the rail and looked over his shoulder to the dragoon, standing stoically just outside the door of the shack. She wore a simple tunic clasped with a leather vest, breeches, and the traditional foot bonds of Burmecians instead of her red dragoon-wear. Her platinum hair swept to the side of her face, and her clear blue eyes leveled at him.

“This is the third night you’ve been out here, Captain. Should I be worried?” She spoke with all the dignity of her station; it reminded him of the woman still behind in the hideout.

Steiner only shook his head, moving his hand down to pretend as if he was still itching his chin rather than weeping in plain view of everyone.

“I can’t sleep much these nights, I’m afraid,” He weakly chuckled at his own predicament, and a small smile graced her face. She walked up beside him, looking out at the shallow waterfront and the revelers on the other side of the small port.

“None of us can. I understand that. Anything you wish to speak of?” She asked lowly, angling her head at him. His jaw dropped to say something, and he lost the words before they came.

“I am merely...lost. And in a loss,” He began, trying to piece together the flurry of emotion rebounding in his chest. “I feel I have little purpose, now. And I am powerless to regain it.” He finished with a shrug, shaking his head.

“‘Tis a feeling I know well,” Freya agreed, leaning on a beam of the railing as her gaze followed his across the water.

He nearly kicked himself; here he was feeling sorry for himself and Freya—she had lost everything. Home, lord, and land.

“I am sorry. It is hard to believe the atrocities that Brahne has committed against your people...” He fumbled, not sure if he should stand at attention or loosen his tense shoulders.

She shook her head.

“It is...both more and less than Burmecia. I left my homeland years ago, and while I love it dearly...I loved someone else more. And now...” She trailed away, and he tilted his head at her reticence. She sighed deeply and ran her long-nailed fingers through her hair, brushing her bangs to the other side.

“I don’t know. Have you ever felt that way, Captain? Loved something, someone, so much that it consumed you? Absorbed who you were...?” She asked him softly, gazing at the water. He paused, and knitted his brows in thought. He was not a romantic man; he had never fallen in love before! But...he realized slowly that he had an answer for her nonetheless. Did she want it?

“Was that...rhetorical?” He asked in a mumble, glancing sheepishly to Freya. She shrugged, shaking her head with a short puff of air from her nose.

“I mean...I have, actually. Yes. Consuming is a word for it, indeed.” He thought of the princess, his grounds, the castle, his men, his duties and responsibilities. Always his duty. It came before all else in his life, to the detriment of everything in his life. He had never known love like Freya’s because it never mattered in comparison to his ‘duty’! Nothing did, not his own life or anything he would have ever wanted for himself. Did he even want anything for himself?

“And what did you do...?” She looked at him with apprehension, perhaps a little hope.

He smiled at her. “I let her go. I watched her run off with the thief that loves her. I had a choice to follow and...” He paused, looking out to a faint lantern dying across the dock.

“And you didn’t.”

He hummed in answer, looking over his shoulder to her. Her eyes were glassy, and she knit her brows in thought.

“Why did you come back to aid us? I thank you, it was courageous, but why did you? You owed neither Beatrix nor I anything of the sort.” She stood to her full height, nearly his, she was! Her blue eyes searched his face as he smirked ruefully.

“Many reasons. I led my princess into a trap of the Queen’s making. My blind fealty nearly destroyed everything I’ve ever given my life to. And I did owe Beatrix a battle by her side, at least. I left her to fight an army alone once, never again.” He scrunched his nose in thought and memory.

“My fealty shattered. I chose the princess. And then I chose my comrades. My newest acquaintance and...my oldest friend.” Steiner looked back at the shack with a skeptical brow raised, but nonetheless, it was true, wasn’t it?

“I think it’s the first decision I’ve made of my own volition in...decades. But to answer you, I let it go. Let it all go. Now I’m bereft with wondering what of me is left.” Steiner reached up to scratch the top of his head, and it felt light without his helm and chainmail hood.

Freya looked down, perhaps she was thinking of what she had lost, or what he had said. He hoped it was of some solace to her.

“I don’t know if I have the will to do so, Sir Steiner.” She murmured, her hands clenched into fists on the beam, her bangs shifting with her head tilt to their original side.

“But none of this is your fault! You should not have to choose. Nothing betrayed you, Lady Freya. Your kingdom was just, and your king was a good man,” Steiner reasoned as well as he could. They might have been in the same situation at the moment, but the predications couldn’t have been different.

“I know, and I thank you. But...there is so much gone and now, well. What should I fight for? What am I trying to find? I got my answers...You needn’t reply, Sir Steiner, it is my own musing and weight to bear.” She stepped back, nodding a half-bow towards him.

Steiner scratched at the stubble growth he had accumulated absently. He had no answers for himself, either. A pair of listless warriors—a trio, even.

“Beatrix has proposed that we try to find the princess, aid her as long as we can. What becomes of it, who will know? It is sound, and should we get away from Treno free, perhaps it is what I will do.” He mused, his thoughts unsteady about the path he found himself on.

Freya smiled gently, tilting her head as she appraised him. “Renegade knights defending a dethroned heir? Bold.”

He nodded, setting his fists on his hips as he stood straight. “The Princess is not beholden to Alexandria, now. But I will find her and keep Brahne from making a grievous error. Garnet is the soul of our country—and I will aid her because I believe in her. And because I believe she can right her mother’s wrongs.” And as Steiner said it, he knew what he had to do. Like Beatrix had said before, he loved his princess, and his country. Enough to serve them despite Brahne’s depravity and greed. Enough to save and protect them from the destruction they were facing.

Freya hummed in thought, “I wonder where Prince Puck is, then?” She asked aloud, and Steiner was snapped from his own reverie.

“Prince Puck?” He asked, scratching at his chin again. Freya huffed a laugh, and sat down on the dock, motioning him to follow.

When he did, she regaled him with tales of her training to be a knight; the ceaseless trouble that the crown prince of Burmecia would get into; her love leaving...Sir Fratley and Puck coming to help Cleyra only for it to be destroyed. Her ignorance as to whether or not they were alive. Her Sir Fale Fratley completely forgetting about her.

Steiner was never considered an empathetic man, but his heart broke for her, all the same.

***

Freya left him by the dock to ruminate on his chosen path, perhaps going out to scout the city for more information about the war. When his heartbeat steadied, he made his way back into the small hut as quietly as he could. In the slivers of light he saw Beatrix’s form curled into the middle of the bed, and when his eyes adjusted he sat down gingerly with his back braced against what was originally his sleeping spot. He didn’t wish to disturb her anymore than he already had. Steiner imagined he could almost feel her presence in the room, her heat on his back, her breath on his neck—perhaps he was still too close,

“Your oldest friend.” Her voice was low, soft like the lantern light that filtered in through the broken shutters, and he could swear he actually did feel her words right by his ear. Steiner scratched at the spot self-consciously.

“It is correct, isn’t it?” He asked hesitantly, wondering how much of anything did she hear. All of it? Possibly.

“Is it...?” She sounded as lost as him, and he scrunched his nose and rubbed at his chin.

“I would think so. There are few people I know as well as you, if at all. There are few people I am glad to face my end with by their sides.”

She huffed impatiently. “Steiner do you have any idea what I’ve done? What I allowed to happen, what—” She exhaled, and Steiner pulled his knees up to his chest.

“We’ve both made mistakes. And we are both here, trying to find some way make recompense for them.” He urged as quietly as his deep timbre could allow. She sighed a defeated sound, and he felt her fingers crawl along the phantom scar on his shoulder. It was still tender and he tensed at the touch—but that might have just been because of the contact. He imagined the spot was still red and angry.

He reached up a hand and grasped her two searching fingers, and she tried to flinch them away. They were strong, but he held fast, somewhat marveling at how he could feel her training on her skin as well as it’s stark softness against his own. Steiner’s eyes were caught on the shimmering and fading lamplight, and he felt her fingers curl into his grip.

“When do we leave, General?” He asked lowly, turning his head to catch her silhouette out of the corner of his eye. She didn’t move her hand, and he thought he could make out a faint smile in the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually kind of like the Freya/Steiner friendship that I’m running into as I’m writing. Maybe one day I’ll give Lady Crescent a chapter of her own.


	15. Wavering Blades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steiner faces the General with his party, in a rematch he never wanted. When Beatrix turns against her Queen, Steiner makes a decision that shapes the rest of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ended up being so much longer than I thought it would be. 
> 
> I changed around the dialogue, to be a bit more compelling or character developing. And so no one would have to read the same dialogue word-for-word!

_Why did you harm the princess?! Why?!! -Steiner, shortly after rescuing Garnet from the Jesters._

When the party came up from the damp dungeons, Steiner was fuming, livid, heartbroken, and distraught. His princess was unresponsive, Master Vivi was too quiet, Zidane was not himself. Even the new knight—Lady Freya; she was apprehensive and distant. He looked at them and saw their spirits shattered in their eyes. As was his want; Steiner turned on Zidane—perhaps for some form of stability in their worlds gone mad.

“Yell at me! Tell me it was my fault, blame my incompetence!” He shouted at the boy beside his princess.

“No!” Zidane bellowed at him. Bellowed! Steiner stopped, his heart sank into his feet. The thief looked despondent, confused...alone.

“I can’t even shed a tear...” He continued, shrugging and shaking his head. Steiner took in a breath to respond with something, he wasn’t sure what.

“There they are!” Two voices broke through his thoughts, spoke in perfect unison. He heard boot heels on stone and then carpet—he knew the cadence of those footfalls. His blood stilled and his eyes locked on her when she stepped through the threshold. Locked on her like he always did. Her hair shined bronze in the lamplight. She walked with her shoulders straight and her steps sure. Her eye leveled at him directly, and he thought he saw a faint tilt of a smirk on her lips.

“Welcome back, Steiner.” Her voice was as smooth as her blade through unarmored flesh. Of course she singled him out—why wouldn’t she?! His temper flared in the wake of the quiet she always graced him with.

“Where have you been all this time?” Beatrix asked with a flip of her hair, her attention barely on him now. A false show of camaraderie if there ever was one!

“Don’t tell me you’ve been enjoying the company of these scoundrels?” She huffed half a laugh at him; always laughing at him, dismissing him! He took a step forward but his words caught in his throat—the princess—did Beatrix know about any of what had been going on?!

“The only scoundrels here are you and your fat Queen!” Zidane interrupted, leaping from his place by the princess and in front of Steiner. He almost wanted to shout at the boy to stay out of this—whatever it was between he and the General.

Her cold gaze leveled on the thief, and her hand steadily went to Save the Queen.

“Fools like you will never learn...” Beatrix spoke in a tone that Steiner heard very few times. He looked from her, to Zidane pulling his daggers, to Master Vivi focusing and pulling his staff to his chest for a powerful spell, to Lady Freya’s lance twirling in her nimble and strong fingers.

Steiner turned back to see Beatrix pull her blade, and his hand went to the hilt of his sword on instinct.

Her eye honed in on him, and she smiled blackly in challenge.

“She’s a tough one, Rusty!” Zidane shouted his useless warning, and then—

Shock. His vision exploded into light and pain. He pulled his sword just in time to ground it into the stone and hope the Seiken ricocheted elsewhere.

“A paltry trick, General!” He heard Lady Freya shout over his roaring blood. When his vision cleared, he watched as she parried the Burmecian’s spear. Beatrix cuffed a laugh and dodged Zidane’s spinning blades.

Master Vivi let loose a Fira, and Beatrix responded with a swift kick to his small frame; Steiner heard the air get knocked from him and he stumbled away from her.

Steiner shook off the lightning she struck in his limbs. He stepped into the fray, focusing the pain still rocking in his muscles and turned it on her, swinging his newly found Ice Brand against her side and Minus Strike connected. Beatrix staggered back a single step, Save the Queen crossing against him now, surprise and anger blazing in the amber of her eye.

“You are no match, Adelbert. I will not hesitate!” She seethed at him, and he raised his blade in defense; terrifying though Beatrix was, she struck no fear in him. Only steady, unyielding surety.

“Even so.” He growled lowly. Lady Freya appeared by his side, jumping into the air to strike her from above. Zidane swept his other side, coordinating an attack from below. Steiner turned and made eye contact with Master Vivi, and held up three fingers. The black mage nodded decisively and readied his spell.

Beatrix dodged the thief as Steiner knew she would, his eyes followed her closely. Freya landed too soon, and caught a blade to her shoulder for her effort. Beatrix turned and struck out Stock Break to level them soundly at the same time.

Steiner knew he had one chance at this!

Master Vivi shouted his spell and strung it to the tip of his Ice Brand, and Steiner charged at the General, still pulling away from her last blow. She spun quicker than he could follow, but her parry was not enough.

Thunder Sword broke against Save the Queen, lightning struck her back and sent her staggering away several feet. Her head hung and she gasped in pain—his heart stopped. What if he had—

But he hadn’t. She looked up at him with a ferocity he hadn’t seen in over a decade. Like she had stepped into his helmet again. Her blazing eye caught the fire of the lamps and she was in his face before he could pull his sword up.

Relentless. She was still relentless! Her blade caught his shoulder plate, his abdomen, banging off of him like a hammer. She pushed him, pulled him around the room—his parries seemed to do naught but knock him in the way she wanted him to go.

He tried to break free of her pounding tide; knocked her sword away but she laughed when he overreached, leaving him open for a blow she didn’t make, instead jabbing the hilt of Save the Queen into his armpit; the agonizing cramp nearly made him drop his weapon.

Master Vivi tried to slow her down with the said spell, it did nothing, and she leveled her ire at the boy, slashed him with such force he tumbled back feet over hat and landed flat on his face. Freya leapt groggily to her feet and swung her lance only to be parried again.

Zidane was shaky—still standing; but Beatrix, it seemed, had a blade only for Steiner. She smirked in victory as she closed in on him.

Steiner set his stance, placed his feet squarely on the ground—the other two came in from behind her—Steiner lost track of Master Vivi—Beatrix whipped back around on him and pummeled him with every slice she could manage. He parried and parried and she spun him around as she attacked; he almost crashed into Freya trying to stay standing.

Steiner saw Master Vivi only a few feet from Zidane’s elbow, the black mage held up two fingers at him. They were all on one side of her, too close to each other even as they tried to fan out. He still felt Beatrix’s shock in his bones. Lady Freya and Zidane were bruised, bleeding. Master Vivi had a slash across his coat from collar bone to leg.

And that’s when he knew they were doomed. The battle was over—Beatrix was through with their farce.

His gaze, again—like always, locked onto hers, and he saw that she reached the same conclusion. She took a step forward, lunged upwards, Save the Queen spun up and would come down in a devastating arc. Steiner stepped in front of his party, noting the gleam of Blizzara on the Ice Brand—

Climhazard shone like a flare above him—he couldn’t strike before she did, it was useless—

She was relentless.

He was unyielding.

She struck his shoulder with the full might of her holy blade—no, not his shoulder; where his neck met his shoulder. The sword carved through his chain mail and bit into him like an Ironite enraged. He drove his Blizzara Sword against her hip, but couldn’t see if he struck true. Red scattering light exploded into his vision, and he heard Master Vivi’s shriek of pain from somewhere behind him.

He had hoped to act as a shield for his party; take her down with him—make sure Zidane got the princess to safety. She outmaneuvered him, always! Damn her!

He sank to a knee, she leapt away and sheathed her blade—her expression detached...disappointed.

“I destroy all enemies of Alexandria. Never step into this land again.” She spoke, cold and blisteringly ruthless. Steiner couldn’t breathe, his arm couldn’t pull up the Ice Brand—Beatrix had a few scrapes, her hip was gouged into by his final strike, but he was no match for her. He was never any match for her.

“What are you doing...?” He gasped out between clenched teeth. “You would banish me when you could end me honorably?!” Steiner struggled to his feet, grounding the tip of his blade into the stone. Beatrix blinked at him, her face was stoic, but her eye was glowing in emotion.

“This. Is. Honorable. Leave, take your cadre of traitors. You made your choice,” She began and he wanted to bellow at her but she wouldn’t pause, “You’ve betrayed every oath you ever made by crossing me.” She seethed through her own teeth—the veneer of stoicism gone from her as she stepped forward.

She thought him a traitor?! Was that what he was seeing in her expression? Betrayal...? He shook his head absently, a bead of rust-tinted sweat trailed down from a cut near her brow.

“You had a duty to your kingdom and you left it behind for what, Adelbert? For this?!” She gestured scathingly to his comrades pulling themselves to their knees. His throat tightened, muted him, and he pointed vaguely behind him—tried to gesture to the princess.

“Hey...wait a minute! You’re General of this Kingdom!” Zidane exclaimed from behind them, snapping her attention to the thief. “What’s your sworn duty? Isn’t it to protect your princess?! She’s right over there!” He finished, and Steiner turned to the dreadful reminder that solidified what Beatrix must have thought of him. Incompetent traitor that he was...

“No...it can’t be...” Beatrix breathed, and she walked past him to where the princess was laying, comatose as she was.

“So it was true. The Queen meant to kill her.” The General continued, and Steiner felt lightning rock through his body all over again.

“No! She wouldn’t—the Queen could never do such a thing!” To her daughter! Garnet was her own flesh and blood! What sense did this make?!

“Steiner, it is time to accept the truth,” She interrupted and faced him, her rigid stance exhausted but her eye bored into him with all the intensity it had when she was trying to kill him. She looked down to Garnet’s form again.

“My heart is set...and I have been mistaken all this time...” Her voice filtered through to him as Zidane butted in.

“I’m sure you hate to admit it, but the lady’s right, Rusty. Time to face the music.” The thief gestured to Beatrix and Steiner glared at the boy. What did he know?!

“Citizens of Burmecia...forgive me...” Beatrix knelt beside Garnet, covering the sleeping girl’s hand with her own. Freya looked up from her crest fallen kneel, glaring lances at the jesters who looked increasingly more confused as time went on.

“It is too late for that,” Lady Freya spoke and her voice broke against the words. She stood and faced the General all the same.

“But you can still save Dagger,” The Dragon knight admitted with a sigh, “Right at least one wrong that Brahne has committed. I acknowledge your power, General. Help your princess.” Freya spoke with propriety and severity.

“I don’t know if I can...” Beatrix admitted in turn with a quake in her shoulders, “but I can try. I must try...” The General pressed a hand to her brow, whispered a prayer, cast her spell.

The red ring of healing was a familiar to Steiner. If anyone could match the princess for healing prowess, it was the holy knight before her. He wanted to move towards the steps, but the jesters cackled at their display and he turned instead at them.

“The spell we cast is too powerful!” One chortled.

“Too powerful is the curse we have cast!” The other sneered.

Steiner took a menacing step in their direction, finding the strength to lift his blade in threat. The two dwarf-sized fools squealed obscenely and shuffled away towards the door.

Beatrix cast her spell again. He heard Master Vivi gasp. The jesters retreated from his view; and he stood vigil over the doorway and prayed to whatever may be that Beatrix was stronger than they were. She had to be...no, he knew she was!

Another, final cast made him face the princess and company. The girl held her head as she sat up, confused and grasping at Beatrix’s hand as she awoke.

“Wh-what happened? Beatrix? You’re all here...” The princess looked about the room, her dark eyes found Steiner and he almost broke into tears out of relief. He heard Zidane and Master Vivi call out in the same joy.

But then, he heard bells jingling behind him, and he turned to witness the jesters flanking his Queen. Steiner retreated a few feet back to the base of the raised platform his party surrounded.

“What is this ruckus?!” She demanded as she stepped into the room, and the princess gasped a small “Mother...” at her appearance. The Queen was corpulent as ever, but her eyes were darkened and her skin looked ashen, like she hadn’t slept since all this began.

The jesters shouted their dismay at the princess’s rescue, but the Queen turned away from her own child dismissively.

“Have you extracted the eidolons from the girl?” She asked coldly, and the jesters cackled in affirmation.

“Then what are you waiting for? Throw them all in the dungeons! Beatrix!” Queen Brahne ordered, and the General marched ahead of the troupe to stand between the Queen and party. Steiner reached up a hand but missed Beatrix’s shoulder as she passed him.

“I won’t allow that,” Beatrix said with authority. The Queen raised her brows, a pompous smirk on her bruised lips.

“My sworn duty is to the princess, first and foremost, like every holy knight of Alexandria for generations. Please, I beg of you, reconsider.” Beatrix’s decorum was impeccable, something that set off alarms in Steiner’s instincts. That formality did not bode well for the Queen—would she really stand against Brahne in such a way?! Steiner looked at Garnet; her large eyes staring at the woman she called mother, the hurt pooling in them like a mist storm on the horizon.

What do you do, Sir Knight?

“Hmph. Impudent fools. You would turn against me Beatrix? After all the glory I brought you and our kingdom?!” Brahne scoffed and swore, her fan waving in indignation. Steiner saw Beatrix’s shoulders tense, and the General placed her hand on the hilt of her holy sword.

“Leave, all of you!” Beatrix called to the party, and Steiner set his feet again.

“I will not allow you to harm the princess any longer!” She challenged her monarch, defied her fealty, stared down her liege. Steiner didn’t know what to do—leave or stay?!

Lady Freya leapt by her former enemy’s side, shouting her defiance of flight.

“I will make you pay for your deprivations, Brahne!” The dragon knight cried with a twirl of her lance. “Zidane! Take Dagger and the others and run!” She echoed Beatrix’s sentiment, and the thief pulled Master Vivi and the princess to the secret tunnel behind them.

“Rusty! Let’s go, man!” He called back for the knight, and Steiner shifted like a rusted prop. Beatrix turned to look at him over her shoulder, and nodded once. Her eye blazed like liquid bronze.

He followed the thief as the first of many monsters bore down on the dragon knight and his general.

***

‘What are you doing, Sir Knight? The battle is the other way. Your comrades may yet need you!’ His internal monologue hounded him as he followed the princess and her thief down the winding staircases and spinning platforms.

“Who designed this crap?!” Zidane yelled as they jumped on the twirling pillar’s ledges again, only to be beset upon by black mages. Powerful ones!

The princess struggled to get off even a minor heal, but Master Vivi and Zidane were formidable enough as they cut and blasted their way through.

A howl pierced the air and went straight to his chest. He looked up and a massive dog-thing fell from the stones above, like the fiends he saw Beatrix and Lady Freya face down. Only it must have gotten past them! Steiner’s heart seized to think of it.

“Incoming!” Zidane warned and the party organized to face down the creature. It’s dragging tongue shot out and struck the princess—who promptly fainted at the strike.

“Oh, come on! Get up, sleeping beauty!” Zidane exclaimed and tossed a remedy at her form as Master Vivi let loose a Fira of immense force. Steiner took the monster’s charge to his chest, his metal boots shrieked and sparked against the stone and he sliced back, sending the bandersnatch away with a large gouge on it’s face.

“Do not speak so flippantly, thief.” Steiner called out, but he had little menace in it, he found to his great surprise. Zidane chuckled and flew at the beast, finishing it off with several decisive stabs.

As the lumbering hound collapsed, the party rounded the last few steps to their escape route. The end was in sight! The princess safe! Well, she would be.

Steiner paused at the end of the stone spiral. He watched Zidane check on Garnet, Vivi worry and hand her medicines, and turned to look where they had been.

Nothing ever got past Beatrix. So what did it say that a few of these beasts had?

‘Knights often fight battles they know they will lose. Will you let them lose, Sir Knight?’

“RUSTY! Dude! C’mon, you’re slacking! Get the lead out!” Zidane intruded again, and Steiner looked down at his party. Garnet gazed at him warily, tilted her head in confusion.

Steiner met her eyes.

And saluted.

“Zidane. Take care of the princess. Bring her to Doctor Tot. Make sure of her safety!” He ordered, and all carelessness left Zidane’s eyes. Garnet gasped in surprise, taking a step forward.

“Steiner, what...wait. What are you doing?” She asked, her voice fading by the end. He smirked dourly. Zidane nodded at him with a bittersweet smile. Vivi’s eyes were wide and wondering.

“Something I should have always done. Be brave, your highness. We may yet meet again!” He dropped his salute, turned on his heels, and ran up the steps with blade drawn.

***

Lady Freya flashed overhead, leaping from staircase to staircase in a blur of orange. Steiner could distinctly make out Beatrix’s jump to dodge a slavering beast.

“Beatrix! Lady Freya!” He called as he clanked his way up the steps. Beatrix cuffed a laugh and shook her head as he stopped a few yards from them.

“What are you doing here? I thought I heard you clamoring from down below,” She remarked under her breath as she met his eyes, and he scoffed a small laugh of his own.

“Allow me to join you two brave knights!” He raised up his blade in point, and Beatrix’s smile only grew. Lady Freya dropped in between the two Alexandrians, and Beatrix faced another beast that came from hidden doors. A howl and a massive thump, and Steiner turned about to face another fiend.

“Stifle yourself and your babble, Sir Knight, and fight!” Lady Freya clapped him soundly on the shoulder, and readied herself against their two foes.

Beatrix and Freya swerved and dodged, while Steiner blocked and soaked most of the force against him. Beatrix distracted a bandersnatch’s whip-like tongue with a precise stab and Freya leapt down upon it like a judgement from on high. Steiner weakened the other with a slice that could cut through solid stone, nearly splitting it down the side and Beatrix finished it off with lunge and arcing swing. She glanced at the damage he caused and looked at him with a raised brow.

“Were you going easy on me, Captain?” She remarked in a clipped tone, half smirk and bright eyed. Steiner ‘hmph!’d and shook his head, looking toward more beasts following their retreat.

“Never, and you would have never forgiven me for it, besides!” He rebuked with a bark of a laugh as the holy knight nodded her approval, and Freya looked at the two of them incredulously.

“Crossed blades with the general often, Sir Knight?” Lady Freya asked him with an exhausted grin and a twirl of her lance at another bandersnatch before them.

“More often than most, I think!” He answered as another beast dropped in front of him, it’s slimy tongue dripping sweet-smelling liquid onto the stone. Beatrix raced forward and a Stock Break blasted them off the sides of the platforms.

“And yet you are still alive, Captain. A feat no one else holds claim to,” Beatrix mused as she stepped back to the party, and Steiner realized in that moment that they were exactly where he left the princess to Zidane and Vivi.

“Wait, I know this place! Back that way,” Steiner pointed to the area where the jesters had caught himself, Marcus, and Garnet before, “There’s a gargan that way! We could follow the princess and the others.” He offered, and Freya nodded as she set her lance on her shoulder.

“Better than the way we came.” She remarked coolly, looking down the steps and past the stones that (he assumed) the princess took.

“And yet, perhaps not,” Beatrix added in and pointed ahead.

Bandersnatches came from above, three of the blasted things; and when he looked at their escape route, three more leapt at them from their only means of egress.

Three were a challenge, six would be a nightmare. He rolled his bad shoulder, and lifted the Ice Brand. Beatrix and Freya set their backs against his, and the beasts viciously fell upon them.

***

Later, Steiner’s last few moments were the sight of a gash in his chest. The beast got a lucky hit and it’s claws wrapped about his breastplate, tearing it off from him and leaving a laceration across his sternum. He looked down and clenched his hand to his wound, falling to a kneel as his blade clattered against the stone. The gaping slash in his shoulder, left by Beatrix before, seared alive in new vigorous pain as he released his weapon.

Lady Freya was on her hands and knees, pulling her helmet off and looking up at the ceiling spiraling above them and speaking so softly he couldn’t hear it; he felt that her words were not meant for them. Her bangs covered her eyes, a trail of blood streaming from her scalp down the side of her face.

Beatrix leaned on Save the Queen like a cane, scowling down at the corpse of the beast that tore into his chest. She glanced over at him, her face pale and the hip wound he gave to her earlier gushed blood down her leg.

Steiner heard the piercing howls of more of the monsters, and reached down numbly for his sword. When his hand clasped the hilt, he could not pull himself up. His arm refused to move, what with the tear in his shoulder and the slice still oozing; he was frozen. Steiner laughed darkly at his predicament, looking up at Beatrix with blackened humor. She was gasping for breath, glaring at him like he had gone mad.

“Th-this is not where I imagined I would fall, though it is still you who ended me it seems,” He admitted and his tongue felt heavy, his eyes burned as moisture bubbled into his vision. Beatrix shook her head and took a tender step in his direction. He felt himself slipping downwards, barely registered the crack of cold stone on his face.

“ADELBERT STEINER! No!” He heard Beatrix cry out to him—like an order, like a plea.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, General...goodbye.”

He wondered if he ever got to say the words.


	16. Of Nobles and Thanes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whilst in Treno, our heroes form a plan to get back home, with an unorthodox plan from the Captain and the General’s old friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was much longer than I anticipated. Yay Treno development!

_Treno, Spring 1850_

“I doubt that Gargan Roo will be free to you, now...” Doctor Tot mused as he paced around his globe, his hand stroking the mustache below his massive nose. The light from the lamps scattered off his book stacks and antique tables littered with loose parchment and stained with black inks. It smelled like paper when Steiner’s nose didn’t catch whatever new floral scent Beatrix had when she flipped her hair over her shoulder.

He looked at the hatch that led directly to the passage, and knew that the good doctor was more than right.

“I also do not like what I saw down there besides,” Freya added in. Blank and Marcus nodded.

“The gargan is gone, anyway, yeah. Something must’ve spooked it to make it tear off its rails like that...” Blank agreed, kicking absently at the hatch.

“The passage led to the crags near Lindblum. So it’s possible that they’re somewhere near there. Hopefully they didn’t get caught in the attack,” Marcus said from the doorway he leaned against.

Beatrix shook her head. “If Brahne had them, there would have been news of it. They might have missed the attack on Lindblum altogether.”

Steiner huffed. “We need to get back to Alexandria then,”

“Why? Lindblum might be where they went.” Marcus interjected, but Steiner continued on.

“There’s no way that we will be able to make it across any border at this time. Getting past the South Gate was arduous as it was beforehand and it was attacked as well by the third Black Waltz. We recently ran from Alexandria and everyone knows it, so no one would suspect us to try to go back. And if there is any intelligence to be gained about Brahne, it will be near the castle,” He explained as he ran through his own rationale. Beatrix hummed and flipped her hair to her other shoulder.

“So when it comes to the princess, the adage ‘no news is good news’ applies?” She asked him, and he leveled his gaze at her with a raised brow.

“For the moment. Out easiest way to Lindblum would be from Alexandria as well.”

“How so, Sir Steiner?” Freya asked with a piqued interest. Beatrix raised her own brow and politely turned her attention back to Steiner.

“There will be direct shipments to and from, wouldn’t there be? Troops and supplies and airships even!” He looked to Beatrix for confirmation and the general nodded.

“Indeed. An occupation will take a constant trail of communication, trade, and supply line. Alexandria Castle is the only town in the Kingdom able to support an occupation of a castle the size of Lindblum,” She clarified, and Doctor Tot shuffled down the ladder to join the rest of them.

“And if we decide to investigate Lindblum, Alexandria would be the best place to find transportation there, as well,” Freya agreed and Marcus nodded along.

Doctor Tot pressed his hand to his temple and paced between the party as he thought out loud.

“Brahne has decimated Burmecia and Lindblum. There is nothing left to conquer on our continent, so where would the Queen be? There is nowhere else to go...” He spoke, mostly to himself.

“This is why we need to go back,” Steiner urged, looking between Beatrix and Freya. The dragoon ran a finger below her chin and pursed her lips in thought.

“News of Zidane and the princess is paramount, I would think. Is it worth the risk to go back?” She asked. Blank walked next to Marcus and leaned against the other side of the door.

“Truth be told, we have a bit of a hideout in the town. Somewhere to bunker down and use as a base,” He began, and Marcus piqued up at that.

“Oh yeah! Ruby’s Theater! It’s in the Alleyways by the moat,” Marcus punched Blank in the arm in a show of victory.

“The hardest part is getting up the cliff side. Avoiding the main gate,” Beatrix added in, and Steiner hopped in a jolt of epiphany.

“I know the way! There’s an old unused trail that climbs above the mist. It comes up and runs along the cascades until it reaches the river. From that side we could get to the alley district of Alexandria town without running into a single patrol,” He explained with excitement, and Freya smirked at his exuberance.

“You certainly know your town, Sir,” She applauded, Marcus and Blank scoffed but gave thumbs-up.

“A point of contention,” Beatrix cut in, and Steiner beat down a spike of annoyance at the general—once again!—poking holes into all his plans.

“We have to find a boat in a restricted and abandoned area off the side of the Raza, and make sure any wall guards do not see us cross. How sure are you that there are no patrols along the water?”

“Unless your replacement knew the town patrols as well as I did and she mysteriously released my men, then I would say the river has been neglected as always,” Steiner stated bluntly, flicking his gaze at her with a twitch in his frown. She narrowed her eye at him, blinked and schooled away her expression. Here came the decorum—

“Understood, Captain,” She allowed genteelly. Steiner inhaled quickly through his nose and scratched at the stubble on his face in agitation. Why did it always feel like even when he won, he still lost—?!

“Ahem,” Blank coughed into his hand and Steiner whipped his head to look at their three silent companions all very engrossed in the tiles on the stone floor. Doctor Tot merely looked between the two of them, hummed, smiled, and walked back to his books and ink wells.

“Then getting to Alexandria becomes our primary objective and obstacle, once again,” Doctor Tot resumed, looking worriedly at the hatch to Gargan Roo.

Beatrix sighed in defeat and Steiner immediately turned his attention to the sound. What was that?!

“I may have an...unorthodox solution. But it will have to be done by only myself and...perhaps you, Captain.” She admitted with hesitation, glancing at Steiner with some apprehension. He knit his brows in confusion.

“What unorthodox solution would this be?” Doctor Tot ventured. Steiner watched as Beatrix crossed her arms and shifted in discomfort.

“I am a native to Treno. I still have allies here. And while an Alexandrian province, Treno tends to pick and choose what to care about when Alexandria makes a decree. Especially when it concerns militia occupation and bounties,” She began, and Marcus sighed a sound of realization.

“Ah, that’s why there’s no real ‘guards’ here,” He surmised, and Beatrix nodded slowly.

“Exactly. I have associates and...people to gain assistance from that will not care what Alexandria does or does not want with us. But I must do this as subtle as possible,” She finished, and Blank loudly snorted.

“So you’re taking Rusty? Thats a bit counterintuitive don’t you think? I mean, have you met him?” He thumbed at Steiner, and the knight scoffed at the insult. Freya chuckled under her breath, shaking her head at the tile. Beatrix blinked slowly and gave a small curl of her lips.

“I need to do this as guilelessly as I can. And Steiner is as guileless as we can come by,” She leaned toward him with a teasing smirk for a moment, and straightened herself out again with a neutral expression. Steiner scrunched his nose and scratched at his ear.

She was right, after all.

“So what use is a bumbling and loud knight to you, Beatrix?” He asked of himself incredulously, and Marcus laughed under his breath. The General shook her head at him.

“Just trust me. I can get us to Alexandria if all goes well.”

***

“And if all doesn’t go well? What am I supposed to be doing, Beatrix?” Steiner muttered as he watched her fingers nimbly tie at the strings of the green brocade shirt she picked out for him. Beatrix concentrated on her task, never pausing as she threaded the gilded strings through the holes in his collar.

“I told you. We are going to see an old friend who may be able to help us. Your presence is...surprisingly, going to be to our benefit. And that’s not a sentence I ever thought I would say...” She reiterated and knotted the tie fashionably into his collarbone. He looked down at himself and shifted in the shiny black boots he found himself in. Steiner slid a palm against his smoothed cheek, and Beatrix arched a brow at him with a phantom smile.

“I stick by what I said. The half-beard had a roguish quality I never thought I would see on you,” She remarked coolly, looking down at the rest of the ensemble she hoisted upon him. He shifted in his shoes again, scoffed and scrunched his nose at the thought.

“I’d not want to be thought of as a rogue, so good riddance,” He rebuked. Beatrix huffed impatiently and shook her head at his antics.

“Perhaps it is just that it was a change on you for once that was refreshing. Instead of what is normally happening here,” She gestured her palm in his face and he stepped away. The breeches were stiff and uncomfortable as he moved. (They looked nice, he supposed. Nothing a simple knight like he would ever wear.)

He glowered down at her and she nodded in bemusement.

“Like that. Exactly like that,” She assured and walked to other side of the small shack they’d spent a few weeks in now.

Beatrix was wearing a simple but elegant dress of some sort of soft and shimmering fabric; it was a sunflower yellow with accents of a gilded orange. It wrapped around her frame well, and she looked like she belonged in Treno; sans the puffy sleeves and too much lace. He could even say she looked quite pretty...well...more presentable than he did anyway! And she always looked...well, Steiner never thought he looked well out of his armor, in any case. Beatrix looked very much the part of a lady of her birth rank!

“Until we meet with the before-mentioned ‘old friend’, you’re going to have to follow my lead and stifle your unconquerable need to make noise,” She turned from him, running her hands through her curled mane. Pity she didn’t act like a noble of bearing! He exhaled a huff.

Beatrix pulled off her makeshift bandana for the last few weeks and set it on the drawers that held their normal gear and clothing, fiddling with the front of her hair where he couldn’t see.

“Honestly, I should have just done this the whole time we’ve been here. It’s an old fashion, covering one side, but maybe I can pull it off as vintage,” She said under her breath, and Steiner shook his head.

“You’re a striking woman in any case, Beatrix. Will it matter?! What are we doing, exactly? Why did you shove me into this-this farce of a costume?!” He picked at the brocade vest and shirt with a small scowl. Beatrix’s shoulders tensed, her hands paused in that ever-present mane of hers, and she sighed.

“The costume is playing the part of Treno, Captain. We wish to gain an audience with a well-respected noble, we have to blend in. Particularly with a Tetra Master player.” She explained and Steiner huffed in defeated confusion.

“This was a mistake, then. Lady Freya would have been a better alternative.”

Beatrix turned to him, her chestnut hair cascading over the scarred side of her face, a smile that bordered on mischievous.

“No, ‘little speared thane’.”

***

Steiner was not comfortable being around nobles but not bellowing at soldiers to patrol. He was seated at one of the myriad of small outdoor tables down the street from the Card Stadium, running a finger under his collar. Beatrix pulled his hand down and held it to the table.

“Stop fidgeting and keep your eyes open for her. You remember what Aveline looks like, yes?”

“Of course I do. Are you sure she will be here on some random night?” He asked in a hoarse whisper, slouching in his seat and trying to avoid notice.

“Sit up, Captain,” She tapped his arm and he straightened his back. “Tonight is the elite challenges around the weekly gathers. For the last few years Tetra Master has taken over even the envied dinner socials of the nobility here. Aveline is both a noble and a card enthusiast, and from what I hear she never misses a card party.”

Steiner had only ever played cards with Master Vivi, and the young mage took painstaking care to teach him the rules...he wondered if anyone else was playing with him now. What new cards had he gathered since he last saw Vivi in Lindblum?

He blinked the thoughts away as several nobles sat down at the table next to them. One older woman with a massive feather in her laced hat looked at he and Beatrix, rose a brow and stared for a moment, but turned back to her group of three.

Steiner caught sight of Beatrix pressing a hand to the naked side of her face and smirked a devious grin of his own.

“Ah. I suppose most would still recognize ‘Lady Beatrix D’Belrosa’ in her home-”

“Silence!” She hissed at him, the ire in her eye palpable in the faint dark that perpetuated Treno like a fog. Steiner smirked and shrugged slowly, turning to face the gatherings of nobles clinking their fine flutes of bubbling pink wine and munching on their green and white cucumber-finger sandwiches over their cards. It was hard to believe they could be so jovial in their aquamarine poofy-pants while a war was on! He would never understand the nobility—and that was never his place—

His eyes locked on to a cascade of golden blonde hair. She was still a tall woman, older now then last he saw her, but as regal as ever she was. Her blue eyes shone in her handsome face, her stance every bit that of a lady. Her gown was as rich and colorful as any noble woman around her, but held an air of simplicity and practicality that Steiner was sure was from her time as a general and knight. She walked with a cane of excellent craftsmanship, and a bejeweled fan flickering in her off-hand.

Aveline talked with some passerby’s, and Steiner knit his brows at what to do. Approach her? Garner her attention? Whistle?! No, no, whistling wouldn’t do.

“Do not do anything. Do not make a scene. Do not approach,” Beatrix settled a hand on his forearm to accentuate the point; grounding him and steadying him like she always did. Like a lightning rod—like he still felt her Shock under his skin.

What was he doing—Aveline! Right. Nothing, apparently!

“Then. What. Am. I. Doing here...?” He enunciated impatiently, and Beatrix removed her hand from him, interlocking her fingers.

“Our presence here is enough. She sees us, she no doubt knows what has been happening in Alexandria...” Beatrix began, but the woman with the massive feather hat butted in.

“Do we know you, girl?” She asked in a pompous voice, and Steiner looked at the table of elder nobles and blinked at their finery and color. Beatrix answered a brusque “No, m’lady,” and turned her attention back to Aveline, a few yards away. The noblewoman pursed her coral-colored lips and narrowed her gaze at them, and Steiner turned away stiffly.

“Are you sure? You look like Madame D’Vry or some relation. I never forget faces, no I do not!” The noblewoman squawked from behind them and Beatrix’s hands curled into fists. Steiner blinked slowly, hearing that name before...but where was it...? He scratched under his square jaw in thought.

“D’Vry...I know that name,” He mused and Beatrix glared at him.

“Focus, Adelbert. We’ve no time for this,” She said and kept her eyes on the ex-general who spread out a (presumably) impressive display of cards for her table-mate. The hippo-man across from her laughed under his frilly collar and showed cards of his own. Aveline fluttered her fan and looked pleasantly dismayed. Steiner thought he saw her bright eyes finding him before she hid her expression behind the painted silk of her fan.

Steiner’s eyes caught movement out of the corner of his vision, a fanciful dressed bird-man with a ruffled collar and a monocle stalked up to their elbows, leaning down wordlessly in a halfbow. “Miss, Madame D’Travers wishes for your and Master ‘Thane’s company this evening at in her conservatory,” He whispered, and immediately he straightened up and walked away like no transaction even took place.

“Master Thane, indeed...” Beatrix said under her breath and stood in a fluid motion. She gestured for him to follow her and he did; she wrapped her hands around his elbow and pulled him along where she wanted him to go. Steiner half stumbled but found his footing as she wrangled him onto the sidewalk.

“To the conservatory then...that was more nerve wracking than we needed it to be...” She sighed in relief, fiddling with the hair over her eye as they made their way toward the manor houses and mansion grounds.

“More confusing than it needed to be...” Steiner would have made some comment about how it wasn’t his place to know the ways of nobles, that it was beyond him or something similar, but the words felt flat and his patience thin at any sort of social game being played and he being played with it.

“This is where our appearance comes in,” Beatrix gestured to the area they casually strolled into. “No one looks at you here when you fit into the throng.”

The houses were large and lavishly decorated with gilded banisters and lamps, mahogany steps and cherry window frames around colorful stained glass. Rows of flowers lined the sidewalks and every mansion and manor had a gated yard offset by meticulously shaped and pruned hedgerows that looked black in the night. Every house seemed to try to curse the dark and demand attention with its bright paint and overuse of gas lighting.

But while it was colorful and bright to look at, the nobles and guards that passed them said not a word, spared not a glance in their direction. Beatrix walked with purpose, as always, and her hand was tightly clasped around his bicep. It wasn’t fear she gripped him with—it wS annoyance. Frustration. Impatience and a lack of desire to be there. He simply felt off in his expensive shirt and stuffy breeches.

The manor that she slowed at was a classical and gothic one, with baroque carvings and wrought iron fences. Beatrix huffed a small laugh. “The only time nobles use such base material is when they’re being ironic.” She commented and swung open a small gate leading to what looked like a greenhouse to Steiner.

Among the pottery of lilies and roses and attractive bushes there was a small circular tea table with a few fashionable wicker chairs. The bird man with the frilly collar and monocle was already there, setting down a pair beautiful wine flutes and one rustic iron stein with some heraldry on it. Steiner tilted his head at the scene, but could feel the very eye roll that Beatrix gave.

“Miss D’Belrosa and Master Thane, if you would. Madame D’Travers will be here shortly,” The bird man wove to their respective seats, and Steiner looked down to the iron mug; sitting only after a nudge from Beatrix. She sat next to him smoothly, and the (presumed) butler filled their glasses with some of the same bubbly pink beverage that the nobles in the park had.

It smelled too sweet, and Steiner scrunched his nose.

“Haven’t been here for a few years...she rarely changes her floral arrangements, it seems,” Beatrix said as she examined the conservatory with a wary eye. Steiner picked up the mug to examine it, and a telltale creak of a fence snatched his attention away.

With a flick of her fan, Aveline strode into his line of sight, her cane clicking on the cobblestone pathway and her hat cocked at a debonair angle. When her bright eyes caught the pair of them, she smirked and took her seat opposite the two of them. She removed her hat and her golden hair shined in the faint light, her fan resting in front of her and her cane at her hip.

“Randall was just asking about you, Beatrix. Said he thought he caught a ghost of you around town. Good to know he’s not gone mad, yet,” Aveline said, smiling at her military replacement. Beatrix huffed a laughing sound, but Steiner could sense no humor from her.

“If anyone knew I was anywhere near Treno, it would be my brother,” Beatrix remarked coolly and Steiner rose a brow.

“And how are you, my little speared thane?” Aveline asked him directly, her smirk never leaving her. Steiner snapped his head towards her and gasped for a moment.

“I—I’m...we are here for assistance,” He managed to get out, unsure where to start or even end. “Aren’t we?” He turned to Beatrix who glared with pursed lips like he was a nonce.

Aveline laughed. “Asking for help from a former Alexandrian Holy Knight when you yourselves are fugitives, traitors, and deserters? How bold,” She said with a humored laugh and Steiner eyes Beatrix warily. The General however, dropped her accusatory gaze and actually smiled when Aveline started to chuckle.

What. Was. Happening.

“Why am I joke to you?” Steiner hissed under his breath and Beatrix patted his arm in good nature.

“You are no joke, Captain, only entertaining,” Beatrix said with a sidelong smirk. Aveline hummed at their exchange.

“The more things change, they stay the same. You still allow this petulant girl to mock you, little thane? How odd,” She mused and Beatrix’s expression faltered. Aveline straightened up and shook her head. “My apologizes, General. Well, Miss D’Belrosa. What can I possibly assist you two with?”

“We need to get to Alexandria. Without any trouble. A small squad of us, if possible.” Beatrix explained. Aveline smirked and her manicured nails clicked against the glass tea table.

“With All of Alexandria looking for you? Again, how bold. Why?” Aveline asked with a narrowed gaze.

“We need to know Brahne’s plans. Alexandria will have that,” Beatrix answered without a hitch.

“Who is acting General?”

“Knowing Maia, Catherine. She was next in Chain of Command,” Beatrix sighed with some despondency. Steiner frowned; Catherine was hot-headed and ill-tempered, thought too much of herself. Like an immature Beatrix who never grew into her prime. He brightened at a thought, however.

“Which means that the cliff side plan might still work. She’ll be off with Brahne and besides, she never knew her rounds anyway!” Steiner exclaimed with triumph and Beatrix nodded her head toward him in agreement. Aveline scoffed a puff of air and took a drink from her glass.

“So you need passage to the cliffs. Treacherous, simply for their wild nature. The ancient path has always been in shambles, and you will brave this to swim the Raza to the docks?” She asked incredulously and Steiner nodded in excitement.

“Yes! I know the paths well. Monsters come up from the mist, and I’ve had an eye on it for almost two decades now! My men were the only ones to patrol the docks, and they...they are likely not being used...” Steiner faltered at the mention of his knights, and Aveline pursed her lips at the tension. He didn’t look at Beatrix, but he heard the sharp inhale.

He was trying very hard not to be mad at her for harming them.

‘It is behind you, Sir Knight. Neither of you are what you were.’

“Indeed. The Knights of Pluto are sworn to the heirs of the throne, and with Garnet absconding and committing treason, I would think the lot of you would join her,” Aveline agreed as she appraised Steiner thoughtfully. Her attention turned to Beatrix. “But for the General herself, the great ‘Beatrix of Alexandria’, the cold-hearted butcher of Burmecia—”

“The Black Mages were the butchers.” Beatrix interjected in a strained tone and Steiner felt in the lurch at the rapid shift in conversation.

“Alexandria’s army slew a defensive force and murdered civilians in their beds, General,” Aveline pushed. Steiner whipped his head back and forth between the two of them trying to catch what was happening. Beatrix’s eye was dark and amber-red, her hands clenched together so hard he could see her fingernails digging into her own flesh; a cold fury like lightning in her very aura.Aveline was calm, the center of a storm; in her blue eyes there was a hurricane and Steiner felt like a rusted conduit in the static that streaked betwixt them.

“We fought soldiers,” Beatrix argued breathlessly. “Brahne called in weapons that wielded magic after that. Called down eidolons. My army would have been enough, more than enough and—” Her gaze dropped to her hands and she peeled them apart. Steiner felt an ungodly urge to grab hold of one...

“And she slaughtered them all as a threat to her reign. Perhaps revenge for her father...I recall that war well. Maybe Burmecia even deserved it; can a nation truly ever rise above the bloodshed that it caused?” Aveline said nonchalantly, taking a sip of her glass; whatever spell that Beatrix’sdowncast expression thrust on him broke.

Steiner’s blood boiled.

“Burmecia deserved naught of what happened to it. The old king is dead thirty years now. Brahne had no provocation—no right—!” His voice came from deep in his chest and Aveline tutted at him in a black humor.

“And this from the boy I found pinned under a Dragoon’s spear? From the knight who would give his life for his Queen without a second thought?” Aveline eyed him critically, and a spike of phantom pain throbbed in his left side. His jaw clenched in frustration—that old war had nothing to do with what was happening now!

“Queen Brahne is ruler of Alexandria, she can do whatever she wishes. But what heinous act could she commit to turn her most loyal knight against her? To halt her general’s march for glory?”

“She turned on her daughter. She threatened Garnet’s life. She betrayed herself...” Beatrix said with the same strained tone as before, her voice faltering by the end. “Brahne became obsessed with power, cruel, impatient, filled with anger and greed. I do not know the woman who sits on the throne.” She looked down to her hands that fidgeted against each other anxiously.

“The princess is our only hope for peace now. We must find her and she is on the run from Brahne. Help us, General.” Steiner urged to Aveline, who watched them with the patience of a stalking cat. She blinked slowly and drained the last of her glass. Steiner became very aware that he and Beatrix’s were still untouched.

“I can do so, little thane, and I will. I happen to have a shipment of goods going by the cliffs and to some towns affected by the war. Very draining, Brahne’s campaign. I’m sure that you and your squad of infiltrators can fit in one wagon, yes?” Aveline asked with a quirk of her brow, and Beatrix pulled her gaze from her hands. The General nodded in agreement and Steiner smiled widely.

“Naturally, do not get caught. I don’t want to deal with the embarrassment the other D’ees will give me if I’m caught snuggling insurrectionists.” She scoffed with a smirk and stood, pulling her cane to her side as she did so. Steiner scrunched his nose.

“‘Dees?” He muttered to Beatrix with knit brows.

“The Major noble families of Treno, most begin with D’ee, like D’Travers or D’Belrosa,” Beatrix replied under her breath.

“Speaking of, Lord D’Belrosa is missing his sister. Shame that I haven’t seen her in years...” Aveline looked at Beatrix poignantly, and the General shifted in her seat.

“Thank you, General.” Beatrix said with a nod of her head, standing and pulling Steiner up by his elbow.

“Be by the gates in two nights, the wagon you want will have my family crest on it. Good luck, Beatrix of Alexandria. Watch over her, Master Thane.” Aveline gave her farewells, and walked away to her manor without another word. Steiner saluted all the same.

***

Later, after they had told the thieves, Doctor Tot, and Lady Freya about the plan, Steiner pulled his helmet from the trunk it had been laying in for a month now. The feather was bent, and he straightened it as best he could. He was back in his linen tunic, his common breeches, and he still felt out of place in his own skin. The helmet gave little comfort.

“So...little speared thane finally makes sense. After twelve years.” Beatrix’s voice ebbs it’s way into his thoughts like a lunar tide. He looked back over his shoulder to where she was standing by the door of their hideout, and Steiner couldn’t help but chuckle despondently at the notion.

“Thane. A very poor inside joke, I fear.”

“Isn’t that like a noble...a count?” Beatrix asked, crossing the room and sitting on the bed next to him, her gaze on his helmet. She wore her rich blue bandana over her eye again, clothed in her street wear as he; striking though she was.

“I suppose. It’s a misnomer, my family were not thanes, they were farmers...” He barely remembered them now. Steiner believed his mother had black cascading hair, but he wondered if his memory was clouded by Aveline and the former Pluto Knight Captain saving his life. When he thought of his birth mother’s face, it was Aveline’s he saw.

“The Burmecians destroyed the mountain villages...killed the thanes of the Aerbs...” Beatrix ventured, and Steiner shook his head.

“What happened to the Aerbian people happened a long time ago. It justifies naught of what Brahne did. What one Dragoon Knight did to me does not permit genocide,” Steiner looked at her, and her expression was...unreadable. Like she was contemplating him with her head tilted to the side. His hand went absently to his rib cage below his heart.

“The deaths of my kin are long behind me. Behind Aveline. And behind Brahne. The Princess is our future, and I must keep moving forward.” He flipped his helmet onto his head, wincing at the old straps scraping against his scalp. Beatrix laughed beside him, reaching a hand up to adjust the old headgear. He smirked at her finally dropping the polite intensity of the last few hours.

“Well said, Sir Knight. Get some sleep, you shall need it.” She admonished, standing to leave.

“You’re not going to rest, are you?” He asked over his shoulder, tilting his creaking helm off and stuffing it away. Beatrix grasped her elbow, turned to him, and shook her head softly. Her eyes were downcast and her genteel smirk was strained.

“Very well! I shall accompany you until you retire.” He announced, stood, and straightened his shirt as he did so. Beatrix scoffed with a shake of her head again.

“Annoy me until I sleep out of desperation?” She asked incredulously and with a hint of laughter. Steiner nodded in determination.

He strolled with her on the docks for the next few hours, until they both finally exhausted whatever night terrors followed them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun writing Aveline, and maybe she will make more appearances. Creating the noble’s dynamics of the ‘D’ees’ was also fun, and might be something I touch on later.
> 
> For Beatrix’s last name, I went with something French as to reflect the version of her name as well, and ‘Belrosa’ is as on-the-nose as I could find for her. (Beautiful Rose and all that). 
> 
> Steiner’s backstory is embellished from the Ultimania guide; it states his life was saved by a knight of Pluto, inspiring him to become one. I added in the war-orphan part for dramatic angst! And of course Aveline’s involvement.


	17. Twin-Souled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the edge of the world, our party faces their adversary, Kuja, to stop him from annihilating reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Necron is a weird boss if the player doesn’t pay attention to the grandiose theme of FF9; the meaning of life and the fear of death and etc. I always thought it was kind of cool to fight nihilism personified; but I always chalk that up to my issues with Nietzsche.

Memoria; somewhere at the edge of reality. 

_‘I am sorry that I am not worthy...please accept my power.’ -Steiner, if he is not in the party against Necron._

Kuja laughed emphatically as Zidane’s own Trance wailed against him. Eiko swirled her Angel Flute in a summon of Fenrir, who pulled himself from beneath their feet to hurl whatever chunk of rock he could get. Vivi cast Flare—the incantation a cracking mumble in his voice. Steiner thought of curled, bronze hair, the deep timbre of her laughter, and the amber-red of her rage and—

“CLIMHAZARD!” The blazing fury of the sword art left the moonlight-blue blade he found lost in this palace of forgotten time.

Kuja rocked back from the onslaught of the party, but tossed spell after spell at them with a flippant wrist-flick, a hair flip, and a mad cackle. Like a pounding tide came Demi, crushing him under the weight of a blackened force bubble that stole the air from his lungs. Meteor decimated the small summoner and Zidane, and Kuja casually tossed Flare back at their Master Black Mage.

He was fast! So fast...but when Steiner could breathe, he lifted the moonlit Excalibur and called down Thunderslash just as Zidane used the last of his Dyne. As lightning struck the floating madman, Zidane shot beams of immeasurable force from his flaming aura and toward the Terran...not unlike what Kuja did to his home world. The mage disappeared in the ensuing forceof smoke and fire for a moment.

“Is he gone, did we get him?! Sucker!” Eiko called with a shout of victory, but Steiner readied his blade all the same. Nothing was done yet! But perhaps...no, he saw Kuja’s red hair through the smoke cloud around him.

“If I die, I take everything with me!!” Kuja’s cry broke through the din, and Zidane twirled his Ultimate Dual blade over his head as his own trance faded. Kuja lifted from the destruction, his hand held high over him and a twinkle of massive power at his fingertips.

His spell was a hoarse whisper—a wicked prayer.

“Ultima.” Kuja called, his voice barely a shout. 

“GET DOWN!!” Zidane called to everyone; and Steiner looked directly up at the beam of light streaking toward them—at the lights bursting from Kuja like a dying star—

Zidane tried to strike before the spell was complete. The Princess grabbed Eiko to hold her to her chest. Quina ducked their head and hit the dirt. Amarant tried to strike Kuja from below as Zidane did from above. Lady Freya leapt into the air—to do what, Steiner didn’t know. Master Vivi grabbed his gauntlet, looked up at him with terror in his small eyes, and Steiner pulled him to press the mage to his side, his eyes never leaving the blinding lights blasting towards him—towards all of them.

It was not lightning—only pain, like fire, like an explosion, like something tore through him to get to his very soul. He roared in agony—maybe.

He thought of her...saw her smiling over her shoulder at him on the deck of the Red Rose, her eye a bright liquid gold in the sunset and the scent of roses in the breeze...he thought of how much he loved her. How much he would miss her. How sorry he was that he could not come home to her.

And then he died.

***

Adelbert Steiner, or what was Adelbert Steiner, floated in an abyss of darkness or just...nothing. He wasn’t sure. He thought he heard Zidane’s voice from somewhere far away. It sounded like he was arguing with someone...

Steiner was finding it hard to care. He wanted to feel terrible about it...he wanted to feel anything about it...but he simply couldn’t. Kuja destroyed them...destroyed himself. The battle was over. The world saved! He could rest now...

‘I am sorry to disappoint you, Beatrix. Perhaps things will be better this way. You won’t need to hold my hand anymore. Argue with me anymore.’

“I’ll die of boredom, you know,” He thought he heard her voice; teasing and light. Then...

“Do not leave me now, Adelbert! I just found you—I cannot lose you in the same day!” She sounded different now, desperate, angry, heartbroken...

Zidane’s shouts broke through his musings. His imagination?

“No! As long as we still have the will to fight, you can’t end anything!” The thief cried, and Steiner wondered over what he was even yelling at now.

What a table turned! Steiner growing tired of Zidane’s voice...

Light engulfed his vision in a flash—he was facedown in the dirt on a precipice of eternity against an inverted coliseum of endless souls. The magnitude defied him—and he was both dead and aware all at the same moment, his consciousness floated above his broken and breathless body.

Zidane was a bright light of Life—determined and able, picked up as Master Vivi lent his very essence to the Terran. Princess Garnet...Dagger, stood as Eiko pushed her up, the small summoner girl vanishing into the Queen’s breast. Amarant staggered to his feet, and Quina slapped the mercenary’s back with a lick of his lips before he disappeared.

Steiner looked up at Freya, who stood with her spear ready. Her blue eyes bled with tears and grief and hope...life. Lady Freya was ready to take on...whatever existential dread was coming their way.

Adelbert Steiner locked eyes with the dragoon, and would have wept if he had the ability. 

“I cannot fight this battle...please, take it,” He lifted...his will? His spirit? Everything he was to Lady Freya. “Take it and use it. End this, Knight of Burmecia.” He bade with all the power he had; his essence, life, anger, love, sadness, hope, everything that made his existence.

His were mad fever dreams after that.

***

How do you think it feels to have someone else inside you? Someone’s entire lifetime of loss, friendship, loyalty, despair just...floating inside your own? Your experiences become memory, and their memory becomes your life.

Freya Crescent was both a young woman training to become a Dragoon, and the Dragoon who struck down a five-year old Adelbert Steiner. Freya saw Fratley for the first time, dashing and brave and wonderful. He shared with her the warrior poets of old and sung songs with her of her people. Freya saw Beatrix, young, petulant, and breathtakingly beautiful, glaring challenge at her and daring her (Steiner?) to be more than she(he) ever was. Fratley danced with her in the moonlight, and in the next moment she was in the arms of a smirking General feeling very self conscious and not knowing how to dance...at some Alexandrian ball? Freya Crescent both charged at the swordswoman in the rainy city of her birth, and kissed Sir Fratley under the statues years before. She loved her gallant Fratley and yet didn’t know him at all—she tolerated, loathed and adored Beatrix; she knew every freckle that graced the General’s shoulders.

Freya all at once knew everything there was to know about Adelbert Steiner. The noble and normal, ugly and shameful, the beautiful and honest things. The feeling of insignificance in his knighthood. His admiration for Garnet, the friendships with his men and with Zidane and Vivi. His pet peeve for obscene humor and foul jests. Things that disgusted him like oglops or thievery. His love for pickles! The fact that Steiner took himself far too seriously and overreacted to everything because his emotions were sewn to his sleeves. His worry that there were parts of him that were broken or made wrong; like he was never a complete person, merely the comic relief of everyone in his life. His absolute gallantry, bravery, and depth of conviction.

Freya loved to dance. She loved music, and fancifully thought herself an amateur poet at times. Freya was disturbed by Humes ever since Burmecia’s fall and though she hates it she cannot help it. Freya loved her kingdom, what was left of it, and her people and her native tongue. Freya loved maps and cartography; something she shared with the General, according to Steiner. Freya longed too much even her own tastes, and she was prone to fits of melancholy and apathy. She took out her frustrations with duels and contests and was competitive to a fault. She was driven and determined in all things. Steiner now knew these things as intimately as Freya now knew his scars.

If you know exactly why someone does everything they do, why they feel everything they feel...if you understand someone so completely, how can you do anything but love them?

Steiner concurred, and bolstered her to lift her spear as she solidified at the base of some dark daemon at the edge of time and space.

A sandstorm of spirits blasted around her and her friends—Zidane spun his double edged blade as Dagger whispered a prayer in this place beyond gods and monsters. Amarant spun three spinning pinwheels around his claws with that cocky swagger and self-assured grin.

Freya could feel Shock energize at her fingertips, and she curled her fists around the haft of the spear. Steiner was there—ever present yet unseeable.

The Daemon sung choruses of despair; cajoling them to give themselves to oblivion, to null the world like Kuja wanted.

Freya had the memories of two souls, now, and she would not give them up because of the mad Terran’s hopelessness! She twirled her spear in her readied stance, cast Reis’s Wind on her friends, and leapt upward into the whirlwind of golden never-where.

This being—this ‘Necron’ waved a mighty and rotted-white hand beneath her, Demi pressing down in Amarant before he tossed his pinwheels at the thing all the same. Necron barely flinched, and when Freya impaled her spear down it’s chest, it called some shockwave of decay and entropy to cascade across them, knocking her out of the air with its fetid force and downing Amarant.

“Life exists only to reach its end. It yearns for the peace of nothing, so why do you deny this?” It’s voice was beyond scathing; a breathing, heaving, moaning sacrilege.

Dagger hastily cast Life to raise the mercenary and Zidane garnered the attention of the god-lich, slicing and spinning and ducking. To no avail.

Necron could not be dodged or parried or blocked—it’s blasphemous mutterings turned into incantations of deific portions, and bursts of starlight and the agony of planet collisions crashed on them all.

But they were all twin-souled now; and the impact of his profane magic might have destroyed Freya once, but she was clad in a cuirass of pure conviction and the valor of a Paladin, her feet knocked out from under her only for her to leap back into the fray.

‘Use my power, Lady Freya—Strike true with the will of Furies!’

A nascent gleam of bright blue shone at the edge of her spear, and when she raced to the god-lich and struck him soundly, a cry tore through her throat that was both hers and his.

Thunder Slash reigned from what heavens remained.

Her fingers tingled as she backflipped and leapt away with the grace and power of a Dragoon; Odin’s Spear, by Dagger’s will, lent his might to her borrowed attack. Amarant jumped from platform to platform and throwing everything in his arsenal from pinwheels to rising suns and mythical or mundane weapons they didn’t use anymore. Zidane’s trance flared up again, and his own blasts of freed energy and meteoric conjurations.

Freya couldn’t tell what did it. Was it her lent Thunder Slash? Odin’s might? Amarant’s thrown Cypress Rod? Zidane’s Dyne?

It didn’t matter—Steiner agreed. The battle was won! The being at this place of nowhere turned black against the darkness of eternal void, levitated away from them to be banished behind the light of the crystal that made their worlds. Necron’s cruel hypothesis was debunked; they proved him wrong and Kuja a desperate fool, simply by their will to life.

Sir Fratley would be so proud...as would the General.

When the void-thing collapsed in on himself with his groanings of nigh-inevitability, Freya gasped in the thinning air. She looked down at her hand turning into pure white energy and the same happening to her friends. Dagger reached out to Zidane—the crystal of reality overhead shone with the brightness of the sun—Steiner’s hand rested firmly on her shoulder in resolute encouragement. She felt his smile on her lips—

And then...she lived.

***

Later, the party realizes they are not yet dead...anymore. Kuja used his last breath to undo what destruction he wrought on them.

The base of the Iifa Tree was lit by the sunset and their victory, Memoria imploding in a silent reverence to go back to wherever it came from.

Steiner blinked in the setting sun, like a newborn seeing the world for the first time. The party erupted into varying states of elation; Zidane hoisted the princess in an embrace and spun her about. Quina licked at the dirt and plants along the path that led to the tree. Amarant tilted his face to the sun. Eiko danced a victory jig as Master Vivi wept softly into his gloves, and the small summoner pulled him into her dance. Lady Freya turned her face to him, her bright eyes glistening and an incredulous smile on her face. The orange dusk lit up behind her like a halo, and she grasped his shoulder plate as she bowed her head.

“I don’t think I could have fought that battle alone, Sir Knight.”

Steiner was sure he was crying, suffocating, but the sound of an airship drug his attention away from the dragoon and party. The Hilda Garde III landed not too far from them, and in the distance, the Red Rose still flew mostly intact.

Steiner took in his first breath of this life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said, I kinda love the Steiner/Freya bromance I was working on, and when I finished the game again recently (for research purposes), there’s that part where the members of your party that don’t fight Necron with you give their essences to revive the party members that do. 
> 
> For whatever reason in my game, Steiner gave his to Freya. (She’s hella fast and Necron was killing me when I used slow characters.) I don’t know if that happens every time, but it gave me reason to write this! A little more melodramatic than some other chapters, but what did you guys think?


	18. Griffin’s Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Garnet’s coronation, Vivi tries to work around old feelings and fears, choosing instead to confront them (and a befuddled General) directly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this started as a little writing bug that was going to be a snippet, and kind of grew into a story on its own.

Spring, 1850

‘ _Fear it’s Soul, for it knows no terror.’ -Inscription made on the back of the Griffin’s Heart artifact, attributed to General Beatrix of Alexandria._

Alexandria might have been such a big town to him, but the castle was much bigger! Standing on the edge of the river and looking up made Vivi dizzy, and he would have fallen backwards if not for Lady Freya.

“Easy, Vivi! Try not to be overwhelmed. You’ve been to Lindblum, after all.” The dragoon palmed his back and pushed him forward to steady him.

The party was back at Alexandria after Brahne had...stopped. Dagger was going to be Queen soon, and everything was going to go back to normal! Well, sort of normal. Zidane might have been going back to Tantalus, Eiko might have been leaving with him, and Miss Freya and Mister Amarant might have been going to their homes. Honestly, Vivi wasn’t sure. He didn’t know what he would be doing, but Mister Steiner offered to find him a place. If he didn’t go back to the Black Mage Village. For the moment, everything seemed to be at peace, and Kuja’s evil plans stopped with Brahne.

Vivi straightened his hat and looked up at Freya, smiling as he looked ahead to the rest of the castle. They were going to see Garnet! After meeting up again with Mister Steiner (who had a very peeved Eiko in his grip!), they were allowed inside to see Dagger again.

He jogged ahead of the party, and was the first to come through the front palisades and into the massive hall of the keep. The carpets were red, and chandeliers hung, and it was all so pretty—

Vivi froze at the base of the magnificent stairs, looking up at a woman positioned on the landing in between the two staircases. Her gaze seemed to bore down into him, her eye narrowed and her hand rested on that sword of hers. The general was just as scary as she was the three times he had met her before, and Vivi sank into his shoes and gripped at the front of his jacket.

Were they not allowed here? Was she gonna stop them or hurt him...? Mister Steiner let them in...

“Master Vivi! Please stay with the group!”

“Lighten up, Rusty, just let the kid run around a little bit!” Zidane’s rebuttal echoed (as did Steiner’s outcry at the lack of decorum) and Vivi dipped his head down and pretended to adjust his hat. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to Freya, again, who had a look of patience and compassion in her eyes.

“Hey, what’s up, Bea? Is it okay if we see Dag-, I mean, Garnet? At least before...everything?”

Vivi looked up to see Zidane speaking so nonchalantly to the swordswoman, who glanced at Mister Steiner and nodded to the rest of them.

“Of course, you are her guests at all times, it seems,” Beatrix bade them, and Vivi managed to look up from under the brim of his hat.Eiko came sprinting from behind him and practically tackled his arm.

“C’mon, Vivi! You heard eyepatch lady! Lets go see Dagger!” Shegushed and pulled him along, a raucous clanking sound thundered behind them.

“That is the general you loudmouthed Mini-brigand!!” Steiner bellowed.

“Be still, Sir Steiner, she means no harm,” Lady Freya soothed, but Vivi just kept running after the very enthusiastic summoner.

***

After seeing Dagger in her pretty queen-dress, Vivi was allowed to explore some of the gardens and grounds that decorated the castle. They would be going to Treno soon for a card tournament, and he didn’t know when he would be able to be back again. Mister Steiner offered to show him around, as he said he “Knew the castle like an old friend”, which Vivi supposed meant he knew all the best spots!

The young mage followed the knight around the courtyard, and some of the side yards that ran along the docks of the castle. One of the courtyards next to the big towers of the castle was especially pretty, filled with hedges shaped like animals, bushes with flowers and flowerbeds all along the pathways and small fountains. There were roses everywhere, it seemed.

“It was her Majesty’s favorite flower. She named her premier airship ‘Red Rose’ as well,” Steiner explained when Vivi asked. The mage hummed, and petted or sniffed every rose he walked by. Steiner kept to his side, answering questions about the castle or...about Brahne.

“I thought I would be happy about it...about her stopping. But I’m not. I’m just sad...for Dagger. For everyone. Some of the townsfolk were really sad about her too,” Vivi ventured, looking up at Steiner with some hope he could...explain the complications Vivi was running into. Steiner scrunched his nose, shook his head and looked out to the colorful garden brimming with life in the sunlit afternoon.

“Brahne was a wonderful Queen, right before she wasn’t. She was innovative, kind to her subjects, fair and just with the other kingdoms. It all happened so fast and yet so gradually. Alas, I have no advice save that I, too, am conflicted. But these are not things you should ponder overmuch, Master Vivi,” The knight urged, and his gaze stopped on something behind Vivi as he spoke.

The mage turned around and saw the General pause as she stepped into the garden, her eye widened, and she walked the other way. Vivi was relieved and then...guilty.

“And...what about her? Was she always like Brahne? Was she always so scary?” Vivi asked, adjusting his hat self-consciously. Steiner blinked, looked down at him, and shrugged his shoulders. Vivi knit his brows in confusion, and Steiner scoffed a noise from his nose.

“Beatrix is an intense woman, I agree. Facing her is not something many would advise, and being in her way is even worse,” Steiner began, looking sympathetically down to Vivi, “But I would never say she was like her Majesty. Beatrix is many things, but I know that what happened to Burmecia weighs on her heavily. She is a great swordswoman. But she has never lived through warfare. Nor through the carnage Kuja wrought with Brahne.”

Vivi hummed. His eyes widened in thought, and he pulled a trinket from his coat that he had been carrying around for a while now. The copper pendant fit perfectly into his palm, and on its front face was a stylized symbol of a griffin’s heart. On the back were inscribed words, supposedly from the woman who just crossed their paths.

“Do you think she’s sad, too? About Brahne, or...anything?” The young mage asked his knight-companion. Steiner nodded without missing a beat, his brows knit in worry or thought, Vivi wasn’t sure. Vivi looked down to the pendant, looked back up to where the general walked to, and thought about Brahne.

He was so angry before. He felt like he had hated her. Vivi hadn’t liked what hatred felt like. It made his head swim and his stomach hurt.

“I’ve gotta ask her about something. Do you think it’s okay?” Vivi announced, turning back to Steiner. His eyes widened, but he smiled at the mage all the same.

“I think it’s a fine idea, Master Vivi. Beatrix is not as severe as she would seem,” He agreed, and Vivi straightened his hat.

“Wait for me?”

“Naturally, Master Vivi.”

***

The gardens normally soothed her, but ever since the death of the Queen, the ascension of Garnet...it didn’t feel the same. She was part of an old regime; a machine of destruction, and Beatrix felt like she was serving as General on borrowed time. Either by her own volition or from a court-marshal.

Ah, but her moods were melancholic and dour as of late.

Her squad consisted of Maia and Zephyr now, the only two that rebelled along with her, it seemed. The rest of the army had to be reorganized and restructured in the wake of her ‘betrayal’ and Garnet’s coronation. Maia seemed too tired to want to go over everything that occurred, and Zephyr’s ever present gaze never seemed to fall on her anymore.

There was a lot to be done and while Beatrix was always alone in her position, it certainly seemed more lonesome than before. She felt alienated even from herself, now.

Even Garnet seemed to have changed. The Queen had her own duties to grow into, and by the gods, did Beatrix understand that. However, they were no longer general and princess, they were Queen and bound knight. Their relationship had...shifted. For the better, perhaps, but to what extent was left to be seen.

The Pluto Knights gave her a wide berth, these days. And when they didn’t, there was no trembling in them, now. Breirecht gave her clipped tones in response to her questions and she was sure one of the other ones (Haagen, that tall one?) muttered angry replies under his breath. Even Wiemar, who before couldn’t seem to help but say inappropriate things around her or her women (not about her, to his credit), was quiet and refused to look up around her.

Steiner was ever the same. And she had no idea how to thank him for it. He had been filling in patrol schedules with her soldiers, barking orders at his knights when they were slow to respond to her, taking over some of her more menial duties so she could focus on the coronation to help Garnet. He hadn’t tiptoed around her in the least, and even as he was thoughtful (like bringing her tea when she was at paperwork all day), he pointed out that her sword-belt was off alignment and “A General should be impeccable at all times.” And argued with her as usual when she told him to get a change of armor if he was going to be that picky.Adelbert was as infuriating as he was helpful, and besides relieved she didn’t know how she felt about it. (Confused. She was going to go with confused.) She found herself asking what changed. Was he always that way? Running around making as much noise as possible while juggling six duties at once, some of them hers? Or was she only now noticing it?

The fountain she paused at had some goddess holding a vase and pouring water back into its basin, and the flowers around the stone benches were starting to bloom in the early spring air. Alexandria was rarely very cold, despite its altitude, and even now there was a warmth in the breeze from either the mist or the sun. She usually sought solace here whenever she needed the quiet, but recently the silence merely suffocated her. Reminded her just how far removed she had become from...everyone. Everything?

“Miss Beatrix?” A small voice, like that of a child, broke through her pondering and she turned sharply. The black mage in blue, the small one. The powerful one. He stood at the entrance to this little garden, which was hidden from view by high fences covered in ivy and hedges too thick to see through properly. He must have followed her from her near slip-up before.

“Master Vivi, as I have heard?” She answered respectfully. Steiner rarely gave such to anyone without good cause, and while she and the Mage’s relationship was founded on violence, he was accepted here by the Queen. Perhaps that was all she needed as regards to him.

The mage nodded. “Mister Steiner calls me that, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. I think it makes me sound older than I am.” He closed the distance between them, looking up at her in an expression she couldn’t rightly read. The only emotion one could see was from his large, yellow eyes.

“Then I will follow his lead,” She decided and went to rest her hand on her sword hilt as she usually did, but Vivi’s eyes followed her hand warily, and he inhaled sharply as her fingers grazed the pommel.

She dropped her hand immediately.

“My apologies. ‘Tis a habit of mine,” She explained calmly, and the young mage visibly relaxed, straightening out his hat.

“It’s okay. I’m trying to be braver, these days,” He admitted sheepishly, and Beatrix raised a brow at the sentiment.

“Trying to be? I’ve met dozens of knights without half the heart you have shown me, Master Vivi,”

He tucked his hands into his chest and did an odd little squat, standing up again and turning his face towards her. Perhaps his own form of sheepish expression?

“Thanks. I actually wanted to ask you about something...” The mace produced an old medallion from his coat, and showed it to her. She knelt before him, and got a good look at the trinket.

The Griffin’s Heart. Oh, but she hadn’t seen that in years!

“We fought griffins on the outer continent. They were big and frightening. I thought about this,” He gestured to the aged pendant. “Dagger got it from the auction house in Treno, gave it to me. Said that maybe it could help me when I was feeling afraid. Which was a lot of the time, honestly. Did you really say this? What’s on the back?”

Beatrix hummed in answer, smirking at the artifact.

“I admired griffins when I was a girl. When I became a knight, I was gifted this token as a good luck charm, to ward away such feelings. When I became general, I gave away many old curiosities such as this one, and from there it must have ended up in the Treno auction house,” She said with fondness. Most things held by ‘famous people’ ended up at that establishment. Usually sold for far more than they were worth.

“Did it help?” She asked with a sidelong smile to the mage. He looked at it, and nodded.

“Then it served its purpose well. I am glad to know it helped you as it helped me,”

Vivi blinked at her. “Do you still get scared sometimes?” He asked innocently, and Beatrix was struck for a moment that this boy was...indeed a boy. A black mage, perhaps of the same make as Kuja’s weapons, but a boy, nonetheless.

As if she needed to add anymore guilt to her actions, she attacked a literal child at one point.

“I do. I suppose everyone still does. Courage is acting even when we are afraid, not feeling no fear at all,” She said, her voice softer now than it was. Vivi looked down at the pendant again, and lifted it up to her.

“You can have it back, if you want,” He offered, and Beatrix clasped his fingers back around the Griffin’s Heart.

“Nay, you hold onto it for me. Keep it as an apology. As a reminder that I admire your bravery,” She urged, and she saw his eyes curl with a smile she could not otherwise see.

“Okay! Thanks, Miss Beatrix!” The mage tucked away the pendant and she stood. He turned to run back to wherever he came from, but stopped right before leaving.

“Mister Steiner was right. I don’t think you’re a bad person,” He beamed, and ran off toward the clanking sound in the distance.

Beatrix blinked in response, but couldn’t help but smile at his earnestness. She would have to thank Adelbert at some point today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vivi is adorable and I Kinda love writing the interactions of a lot of the main characters with our knights.


	19. Feathered Hopes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Knights of Pluto are slacking on the repairs of a section of the castle, and Beatrix investigates. What was an inconvenience turns into a brief moment of respite in Alexandria’s reconstruction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FF9 starts in January, 1800, for a refresher.

_Early Summer, 1801_

“I just don’t understand how they could possibly still be working on that dilapidated steeple, I mean honestly, General!” Aubrey, one of the new lieutenants of her squad complained for the fourth time today.

Beatrix looked up from the reconstruction plans on her desk with a long-suffering sigh, and eyed the girl tiredly.

“I’ve no doubt they’ve run into some snag. Some problem with the foundation or rebuilding materials,” Beatrix reasoned, scrutinizing the proposal to remove the courtyard’s traditional fountain. She marked it in red and put it in her ‘denial’ outbox. It wouldn’t do to change around the castle when Adelbert wasn’t here, he’d have a conniption and a half.

“I don’t know, General. They’ve no problem tearing away the fire damage everywhere else near that barrack. They’re just not touching the steeple and I can’t commission the masons for the shingles until they do. They won’t listen, they’re incorrigible louts,” Aubrey fell to pacing, and Beatrix sat back in her chair to pretend to ponder the young officer’s predicament.

Aubrey was diligent, shrewd, and practical. In the Burmecian gate conflict she had shown herself to be an honorable combatant, never taking lives needlessly or endangering her women. Apparently, the blonde also conducted herself with virtue and dignity during the Lindblum occupation, and when Beatrix had to rebuild her squad, she was in the top three for promotion. She reminded Beatrix of Maia, and the general admired that.

Aubrey also chaffed at the Pluto Knights at every turn they made, but she was not foolish enough to say a cross word to their Captain, having learned that when Beatrix fell on the last woman who did so like a thunderclap.

Honestly, watching another of her women have difficulty with them just made her laugh. The knights were difficult to corral, but she worked with Steiner for a spell to learn how best to utilize them before the Captain went off to some gods-forsaken continent to look for his friend and the Queen’s lost love.

The castle was too quiet without him; her world was too quiet without him.

Beatrix hadn’t even noticed that Aubrey was still going on about it when she pulled herself from her reverie.

“-and Weimar, don’t even get me started General, I can’t even talk around him without-”

“Enough, LT. I’ll go talk to them. Get them to finish your steeple,” Beatrix raised a hand, and Aubrey stifled herself with effort.

“I-yes, General. I’m sorry, I just don’t know how to navigate around them,” Aubrey huffed, and Beatrix stood with a resigned sigh.

“You’ll get there, LT, it’ll just take you a decade.”

***

When she got to the barracks in question, she certainly understood why her women were so exasperated.

The construction tools were strewn on the opposite side of the building that they were supposed to be working on, the materials were in the process of being moved from one tarp to another, and the Pluto Knights were rigging up some sort of pulley mechanism—all avoiding a half-ruined steeple that would be much easier just to tear down.

Haagen was busy barking orders at Weimar and the self-proclaimed poet Laudo, and Beatrix bemoaned the fact that she knew any of their names.

Working with them for the past month could do that to one, she supposed.

Breirecht was sitting on a block of wood in, what she figured, was their break area. There was a makeshift awning of extra tarp over him for shade and the table that held their plans for the repair of the barrack. Beatrix walked over to him, bypassing his slanted grin and looking at their blueprints.

Beatrix blinked slowly at the chaos on the parchment below her fingertips.

Half of the schematic was scribbled on in pencil, bad drawings were made where they were ‘modifying’ the roofing, and the steeple in question that they were avoiding was circled in a beautiful blue ink with a “Summer?” written by the circle.

“What’s happening here, Brian?” Beatrix asked him with resignation, and he chuckled under his breath. She had gotten past how odd it was that she was on a first name basis with him, he once remarked that ‘it took her long enough’.

“They’re trying to keep the steeple’s last good struts up until summertime. All the rest of this is how they’re getting around having to remove the crawl space under the shingles,” Breirecht explained, pointing to the parts as he did so. Beatrix rose a brow at the entire debacle.

“They’re wasting this much time and energy to save a crawl space,” She droned in growing impatience, and Breirecht shrugged with his ever-present smile.

“Go ask ‘em, General. They’ll show you,” He said with a point and that sneaky grin, and she snatched their half-inane plans up with her as she marched over to the gaggle of Pluto Knights.

Mullenkedheim, the moody one, was the first to see her, and he slapped one of the others on their shoulder to garner the rest of their attentions. Once one Pluto Knight was made aware of something, they all were, it seemed! Beatrix wondered if that was simply one more of their quirks and slowed her gait. They gathered together to join an askew line formation before her, a mixture of bewilderment and confusion on their faces.

She sighed with a shake of her head and held up their daft plans.

“What is this, gentlemen?” She asked directly, and Dojebon tilted his head to look at the parchment dangling from her grip. She stepped forward and handed them their own work.

They circled around their paper, all of them talking at once and Beatrix blinked at the lot of them.

“No, no, see, told you! The I-beams go over there,”

“Yeah but that won’t hold the support structure,”

“Ah man, the flooring is off in the main barracks...”

“Dammit, Blutzen, what did I tell you?!”

“The steeple will sink if we remove that wall,”

Beatrix could feel a vein start to pulse in her own forehead and rubbed at underneath her eyepatch impatiently.

“Stop. All of you.” She seethed in a deceptively calm tone, and by whatever grace of god, they all stopped and looked at her with wide doe-eyes.

“What’s the problem, General? Do you hate the final design? I promise it’ll look better when we’re done!” Kohel stepped forward with the plans, and Beatrix gingerly took them back, trying to control her breathing.

“My women are wondering why you all are lolligagging. Haagen, Kohel, Mullenkedheim, come here.” She said with a snap of her fingers, walking over to the steeple in question. The three knights followed her hesitantly, and she looked up to the ruined structure.

Half the steeple was gone, crumbled in on itself, shingles dangled raggedly from the conical shape, and little white feathers scattered around the area. There was a scaffold by the steeple, like they had built it to look at the roof and then promptly...never did anything about it.

“This is what I mean,” Beatrix pointed at the area, “You have everything you need to tear down this structure and thus, speed up the repair of this barrack. My women have masons to commission, carpenters to hire, and you’re hindering the entire project. Why?”

Haagen opened his mouth to say something, and Beatrix held up the rolled parchment.

“Explain, do not excuse.” She ordered directly, pointing the roll at the tall knight.

Mullenkedheim looked like he was about to talk back, and Beatrix flicked the parchment to him in turn. He blanched, looked up the scaffold, and started to climb it.

Kohel and Haagen looked at each other, and followed him up the ladder. Haagen turned back, waved her to follow them.

“It’s better to show you General!” He said. Beatrix fought another sigh and stuffed the paper roll into her belt, climbing the ladder as well.

At the top of the rickety scaffold, the four of them had a good view inside of the ruined steeple. Besides the fact that she was far too close to these men on this swaying platform, her breath caught at the sight of the nest built into the dip of the damaged shingles.

Little white baby birds nestled inside, chirping gently, shuffling around each other and tilting their heads at the sunlight peering in. They weren’t newborns, but they couldn’t fly just yet. Their nest was full of soft things like pieces of worn parchment, and scraps of cloth. It was well made and had been undisturbed for some time.

“They’ve been here since the attack,” Haagen said over her shoulder, tilting his head at the sight of the little things.

“No, they were here before,” Kohel corrected and Mullenkedheim scrunched his nose at the rebuttal.

“How so? The roof collapsed, they’d be dead!”

Kohel shook his head and pointed to the shingles. “Some of them caved in, but only after the steeple was blasted backward. They were low enough so that the nest wasn’t touched. Blutzen had been hearing the parents coming and going since autumn,” He explained, smiling brightly at his fellow knights and General.

Beatrix clenched her jaw and set a hand on her hip.

“So you’ve been avoiding repairs because of a nest of birds?” She asked bluntly.

“They’re doves, General! The princess’s favorite!” Haagen shouted and Beatrix flinched. They were all loud, weren’t they?

“The Queen’s favorite, yes. So you halted repairs because doves are in the steeple?” She corrected, and Mullenkedheim huffed. Kohel spoke up, however.

“Yes ma’am. They’ve been here since before the attack. They survived Bahamat and the Invincible! It seems cruel to have gone through all that to just die because of rebuilding. Laudo is better with explaining the symbolism, but we can wait until they fly! That’s only a few more weeks!” The self-proclaimed sleuth said, and Beatrix rose a brow. She descended the ladder without a word, and waited for the three knights to follow.

They did, in a terse silence. They lined up before her demurely, and in Mullenkedheim’s case, seething in his own boots.

Beatrix unfurled the plans, and shook her head at them.

“These are null and void,” She began, and the three before her looked at her in various degrees of anger, resentment, and heartbreak.

“If you all were going to surprise the Queen with a beacon of hope, you should have said something sooner,” She poked the paper into the chest of a surprised and confused Kohel, and smirked at the man as she did.

“I’m reassigning you to the other wing of the castle. My women are getting overwhelmed with the project, and I could use you there. Mullenkedheim,” Beatrix turned to the young, moody, eighth knight. He saluted awkwardly, still as confused as his fellows.

“Go tell the Queen we request her presence. It’s urgent, and we need her approval of something,” She said to him, and the boy shuffled a step, hesitated, looked to his fellows, and Beatrix flipped her hair over her shoulder with a terse, “Now.”

Kohel smiled knowingly, and Haagen simply shrugged at whatever was happening. Beatrix tore up their best laid plans and tossed them into the fire before Breirecht, who laughed and laughed and laughed.

***

“They’ve been here this whole time?” Queen Garnet tilted her head at the nest from atop the (now reinforced) scaffold. Beatrix stood a few feet behind some very excitable Pluto Knights, smiling at the glimmer of joy in her Queen’s face. It was rare to see these days, and the less news about Zidane, the rarer her honest joy became.

“Yes, your majesty. The Pluto Knights thought to show it to you,” Beatrix began, and Laudo stepped forward to burst into soliloquies of poetry. 

“As a sign of Alexandria’s determination and purity! Our hope and resilience against all odds, when even the world was crumbling—” He began, only to get elbowed in the ribs by Dojebon.

“All right, she sees it, Good grief,” The artillerist grumbled and Garnet laughed lightly under her breath.

“How did you find them?” She asked the gaggle, and they exploded in answer, talking over each other and filling in each other’s sentences and nonsense with excited ease.

Between their clamor, the birds chirps of hunger, and Garnet’s long-suffering but gentle laughter, the castle didn’t seem so quiet anymore. And Beatrix smiled, content, for the first time since Steiner left.

***

Later, Breirecht caught up to her after the Pluto Knights has been reassigned to better tasks, after the Queen gave her permission to halt the steepled barrack until the doves flew away.

Beatrix was back at her desk, shuffling through her remaining projects when the old knight came in through the door. He took off his old helm, and pulled back the chain coif to scratch absently at his crown. Beatrix paused at his tired expression, and set aside her papers. She motioned to the chair before her desk and he took a seat gratefully.

“Any word from the Cap?” He asked, fiddling with the lip of his helmet. Beatrix held up a stack of envelopes, bound together by twine, with a small nod. Breirecht nodded, scratched at his scraggly chin, and pointed with a shrug.

“Any news of the boy?”

Beatrix shook her head, shuffled the letters away.

“Steiner is...disheartened. He has not, as of this last letter, found...anything,” She said softly, intertwining her fingers on her lap. The old knight sighed and sank into the chair.

“The Queen isn’t taking this well,” He said, meeting her eyes with a downcast look. Beatrix shook her head.

“There is no proof that the boy is dead. Merely missing. If he could survive what the Queen said that they did, I doubt he’s gone. Simply...misplaced,”

“What does the Cap think?”

“Steiner isn’t an optimistic man, Brian, you know that,”

“So you’re being optimistic for him?”

“I’m being optimistic for everyone.” Beatrix said abruptly, leaning forward and setting her elbows on the desk.

“Steiner needs to believe to that his friend isn’t dead and the Queen needs to believe that her love is going to return to her. You saw what happened to that place above the tree, Memoria...it imploded, Brian,” Beatrix began, fighting to find the words to describe that terrifying moment.

“Adelbert was dead, I knew it—I could feel it. Everyone was, and then they weren’t. Who is to say that a lack of evidence means that the boy is gone?” She reasoned, and Breirecht nodded in resignation.

“Fair enough, General.”

Beatrix nodded and sat back in her chair, while Breirecht’s smile slowly curled up to his eyes.

“So the Cap writes you on the reg, huh?”

“Get out, Lieutenant.”

“He’s only been gone like, a month, right?”

“Forty-seven days. Get out.”

“You’re counting!”

“Out. Last warning.”

“Yes, ma’am, yes ma’am, Ha!”

The castle was definitively less silent when the Pluto knights were around; and for that, she would always be in their debt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be the start of a series deftly (haha) titled ‘Beatrix and the Pluto Knights’, and would have included many snippets like this one. 
> 
> This segment got long, however, so became its own chapter. The previous writing germ is still in motion, though!


	20. Pluto Knights I-V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beatrix navigates the Pluto Knights, including: Her first time she meets Steiner, and a handful of conflicting interactions with his men.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part of that series I was talking about! 
> 
> Warning: There is an all caps lock Steiner moment below.
> 
> For reference, Beatrix was born in April, 1772. She is as old as Garnet is in-game when she meets Steiner; just for a fun tid-bit.

Spring, 1788

“ _Will you have this dance with me?_

_Like we do, once a year._

_You smell like bygone times,_

_Oh, how I’ve missed you, my dear.”_

_-Blackbriar, Rooster’s Crow_

Beatrix waved away her brother’s worrying hands on her unruly curls. Randall fretted more than an old woman, and Florence, the eldest of them, was too busy admiring the pageantry of knighthood to pay attention to them.

“It’s fine. I’ll probably have it in a band soon, anyway,” Beatrix soothed, grasping Randall’s manicured hands gently in her own. He flipped his sandy brown hair out of his eyes with a dramatic sigh and went to fiddling with the cravat about his neck.

“That’s just it. You’re...soldiering, darling!” He said it like she had sold herself to Madame D’Pierre’s Quartz Brothel.

“You’re a Knight, a chevalier! Not some common footman. You shouldn’t have to subject yourself to this...tediousness!” Randall exclaimed, his dark eyes alight with grief, and their eldest sister turned at the commotion.

“I do have to agree with Ran, Beatrix. This thirst to prove yourself has thrown you into the lap degradation and poverty,” She eyed the Alexandrian knights that surrounded them on the fairground, sliding her golden hair over a poised shoulder as she judged all of them with a piercing topaz gaze.

Frankly, Beatrix didn’t care about her sibling’s arguments. This was what she had been in training for since she was seven years old! She didn’t want to be one of those knights who simply bought their knighthood and couldn’t even joust properly! Not that she wanted to joust, mind you. She eyed the swordsman practicing on the other side of the grounds, sparring with their blunt blades and clanging metal armor. Beatrix smiled in excitement at even being here in the shadow of Alexandria castle.

“I will be properly trained and under the wing of Aveline D’Travers! She’s a hero and a brilliant swordswoman, and I have been honored in receiving an invitation to the General’s Squad. There’s only one slot a year. I’ve been fighting monsters and brigands and duelists for years. This will be more than acceptable,” Beatrix hoisted up her bag and Randall’s handsome face grimaced in distaste.

“Don’t they have servants or squires for this kind of thing?” He argued in a whine and Beatrix shoved him with her shoulder with a smirk.

“I’m the squire, dear Ran,” She replied smoothly and Florence scoffed with a roll of her eyes.

“Not for long. I’m sure you’re leagues ahead of these fools...oh, look, a male soldier. I thought those were extinct in Alexandria?” Florence drawled, her face lighting up at the statement.

Beatrix huffed a sigh, already embarrassed enough by her family’s theatrics; and she did not want to deal with her eldest sister’s flirtatious nature at the same time Randall was reenacting a Lord Avon tragedy. Beatrix watched her sister’s eyes lock onto someone over her shoulder, and her gilded glance turned into a glare as an obnoxious clanking noise got closer.

The young woman turned and came face-to-steel with a chest of metal plate. Beatrix slowly raised her gaze until it met with a black-haired, square jawed, mountain of a man who wore a scowl of incredible grumpiness.

He flicked up a parchment envelope that had her name scrawled on it; and Beatrix did not like how close he stood in her presence.

“Beatrix D’Belrosa?” He didn’t ask, he stated. Beatrix bristled under his lack of decorum for a noble. His accent was Alexandrian—low-country perhaps? And she had never seen him or anyone like him in her life. His armor was old fashioned and aged, the nicks and gashes buffed out and a speckle of rust along the oxidizing edges.

A pauper knight. She’d heard of Alexandria’s custom to elevate their commoners, but she did not think she would ever actually see it.

“I am she,” Beatrix replied, setting a hand on her hip and refusing to buckle under his dark glare. He smacked the paper into her chest, and she raised her hand up into a fist at his blatant audacity—

“You’re Late.” He barked, and she diverted her fist to catch the envelope he assaulted her with.

“You did ask if they provided servants, Randall,” She heard Florence chuckle deeply behind her.

“That I did,” Her brother agreed with a dash of amusement, and Beatrix glared over her shoulder at them.

“Gah! A knight must be punctual at all times! You are to be at Aveline’s training grounds this instant!” The mountain blustered and pointed a gloved finger at her nose, and Beatrix watched his glare become livid and fiery. His outburst made her take a step back, and she grit her teeth and scrunched her hand around the envelope.

“I will escort you!” He announced with an agitated decorum, and stood at parade rest whilst glaring down at her.

“I’ll write to you both, shortly,” Beatrix said to her siblings, her glare never leaving his long-lashed and unblinking glower.

She did not know his face or his moods enough to catch the ghost of a smirk that he gave at her spunk.

***

Winter, 1795

Beatrix watched the line-up of the Pluto Knights with a raised brow and a grimace. It was the coldest that Alexandria had been in her seven years of residence. She wore a thick coat lined with a thicker layer of Mu fur, and she still felt a chill deep in her bones. She set her teeth together to keep them from chattering and shifted in place to keep blood flow.

The four knights in front of her simply kept jostling in place as they clattered together like the bunch of busted pots and pans their armor was probably made out of.

Two of them muttered conspiratorially at each other, whispering and pointing in her direction, and she glared at the pair of them until they stifled down and set themselves in formation.

They just had to switch off duties—why did Steiner refuse to hurry it up and just cut a few minutes down for the sake of the weather? Oh, that’s right—he was an absolute nonce.

When Steiner eventually did finish his rounds and take the premises from her for the weekend, she pulled his two whispering recruits away from the others and into somewhere warmer to ascertain just what they thought they were doing.

“I do not appreciate being pointed at,” Beatrix began, tossing the coat onto a chair as the two of them continued to give each other poignant looks and make facial expressions. She did not know what they were saying but she was about to be very cross about the entire situation.

“We meant no disrespect, General!” One of them began.

“We were just...putting together some evidence!” The other finished, and Beatrix blinked at their wide-eyed, erratic looking faces.

“Evidence? What evidence?” Beatrix asked with exhaustion, ready to simply order them to latrine duty for getting on her nerves.

“You’re Beatrix D’Belrosa, right?” One asked, and she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I am Beatrix D’Alexandria as far as you are concerned, what of it?” She almost growled, and they both perked up.

“We’ve seen your family portraits and coats-of-arms, so we were wondering whether or not you were one of the Dee’s. Kohel is related to...” The left one paused and the right perked up.

“D’Montblanc! So we’re kinda second cousins, thrice removed. But that’s not important! What is, is how impressively you’ve hid your history, General,” He finished with a lopsided grin.

The General narrowed her eyes at them.

“I did that for a reason. Keep your nosey natures to yourself—and stifle your curiosity. Your Captain will hear about your pestering,” Beatrix did not know nor care what their point was—but the threat of their Captain made both men flush pale.

“Oh no,”

“He’s gonna kill us,”

“General, please!”

“Get out of my sight, both of you.”

*

1800

Steiner clanked away from the balcony at the tittering of the jesters. Queen Brahne was so engrossed by the play that she seemed to barely register that Garnet was unaccounted for at all. For the fifth time that year, and it was only January 3rd, Beatrix swallowed a feeling of unease about her monarch and sworn liege.

“Beatrix. Find my daughter. Don’t leave it to his ineptitude,” The Queen ordered in a sullen tone, and Beatrix saluted wordlessly.

At least she agreed with Brahne on that.

Beatrix made her way down the half-spiral staircase, taking in a calming breath as two of Steiner’s fools came cascading out of their quarters. She would always bemoan how near they were to the Queen’s living quarters; and their existence in general.

They were still getting their armor together, and she halted in front of them to glare at their fidgeting. It took them a solid minute to even realize that a superior officer was in front of them.

“Pluto Knights. Didn’t your Captain give you an order?” She began with as much patience as possible. Blutzen and Kohel had been underfoot for years now, and besides Breirecht, the most tenured Pluto Knights.

“He did! But we never got to tell him that we were beaten up!” Blutzen held up a finger in protest.

“We woke up in our knickers! I tell you General, something bigger than the princess playing hooky is going on here.” Kohel finished, straightening out his breastplate with a huff.

“Someone is impersonating Knights in the Castle and the Princess ditches her favorite play, doesn’t it seem weird? Do you think it’s connected?” Blutzen asked his compatriot who nodded. 

“She’s been awful shifty, Blutz,” Kohel answered with a narrowed gaze.

Beatrix waved at them for silence, and sighed, “Does your Captain know?”

They blinked at her slowly. “We ah...didn’t get a chance to tell him everything...” Blutzen said.

“What if the princess hired those men to replace us and take her out of the castle?!” Kohel shouted in excitement, clutching his head.

“No, Nevermind. You are both useless—go aid your spastic Captain and get out of my face,” Beatrix turned on her heel, the two exclaiming behind her.

Garnet was not so irresponsible as to go running off.

***

Early Spring, 1800

The coronation was going...rather well. There were mountains of paperwork simply about Garnet, but also mounds of it about her, her temporary replacement, and the shuffling around of the guard and almost the entire military.

Catherine had been blasted away by Kuja’s attack, and didn’t even have a body to put to rest. Her family was livid, but there was naught she could do. (Steiner had to keep reminding her that that was the case.) The military occupation of Lindblum had to be annulled, reparations to the Regent and Burmecia were to be agreed upon and decided, and Beatrix was waiting for someone to clamor for her head.

“That will not be allowed to happen!” Steiner had assured her; as had Garnet. Beatrix wasn’t so sure...about anything these days.

Least of all him. Least of all his knights.

Two of them stood before her, and were men she had seen for years and yet barely recognized at the moment. Haagen, the tall one—good with a map, was glowering at the floor, his bright blue eyes refusing to even look up. Weimar, on the other hand, never took his gaze from her—and it was a pointed, scathing look. Nothing like the two of them had ever been to her. Not since they stood in her way and called her a murderer.

And they could not go back to being what they were. Beatrix was not the same woman that walked over them before.

“So basically, you’ll keep to the courtyard and around the fountain until the festivities are finished,” Beatrix finished her debriefing for the two of them, and Haagen shifted listlessly in his boots.

“What about the western tower?” Weimar asked sharply, and Beatrix folded her hands together over her desk—reigned in her temper and her own sharp tongue at his attitude.

“Your Captain has the western tower. He is still investigating the dungeons and other new areas of the castle,” Beatrix answered lowly, and Weimar gave her an uncharacteristically deep frown.

“I take it that was your idea of getting him out of your way?” He mumbled, and Beatrix stood purposefully and crossed around her desk.

Haagen stepped to Weimar’s side and they both took a step back as she closed in on them. Weimar’s eyes were wide and wary now, but Haagen’s were sharp and focused—like the two of them changed places before her.

“If you have something to say to me, Pluto Knight—say it. Steiner knows this castle in and out and wanted to make sure it stayed that way—I do not—correction—I cannot ‘get him out of my way’.”

“Kinda flipped the script overnight, don’t you think, General?” Haagen asked with a curl in his nose, and Beatrix pinched the bridge of hers.

“You don’t have to like taking orders from me, Lieutenant, but you will heed them. I will not discuss power dynamics with you, not now, nor ever. Just ensure that the castle is secure—I know you two are not the idiots you would have everyone believe,” Beatrix took a step forward as her voice dropped in agitation, and the two knights flinched with her footfall.

“You have your duties. Your Queen needs you—these are her orders. Now be off with you before your Captain finds you lolligagging in my office,” Beatrix flipped her hair over her shoulder and circled back around her desk, but the two Pluto Knights didn’t move. They looked at each other skeptically, and back to her with daggers still in their eyes.

This was getting tiring.

And a steady rhythm of clanking made its way to her office.

The two straightened up immediately, their eyes locked at some point ahead of them as Steiner entered her office with paperwork in one hand, and a ridiculously feminine porcelain tea cup in the other.

He stopped, looked at them with knitted brows, back to her, and she gave him a blank expression with a subtle shake of her head. She pressed her knuckles to her lips to hide the growing frown.

“Did your General give you your orders?” He asked in a bark, and the two Pluto Knights snapped a salute.

“Sir, yessir! It’s just...” Weimar began, his eyes shifting from straight ahead to a distrustful glance at her.

“It’s. What.” Steiner enunciated, and Beatrix was sure she could hear the hissing of a fuse lit somewhere under his helm.

“We wanted to double-check, Cap,” Haagen answered, still saluting and still stubbornly staring ahead.

Beatrix leaned back in her chair to get as far away from this Bomb self-destructing as possible.

“DOUBLE-CHECK WHAT!!!” Steiner bellowed, and the tea cup in his hand trembled. He stopped, red-faced and furious, Just long enough to set the delicate China down before turning on his men again—who were both saluting and wincing at what was to come.

“WHENYOURGENERALGIVESYOUORDERSYOUDOTHEMYOUMISERABLELOUTSYOUDISGRACETOTHECROWNWHODOYOUTHINKYOUAREQUESTIONINGAGENERALWHENSHESAYSJUMPYOUASKHOWHIGHANDWHENIGIVEYOUANORDERYOUDOITWEIMARIFYOUSPENTASMUCHTIMETRAININGASYOUDIDBEINGSNIDEYOUDBECAPTAINHAAGENIFYOUGIVEMELIPONEMORETIMEIWILLMAKEYOUKISSDIRTFORAWEEK—” Steiner stepped in front of them and bellowed with enough force to shake her map frames on her walls.

Beatrix gingerly lifted the tea cup, still cheerfully steaming, and took a sip while pretending to politely ignore the utter chewing-out that was happening before her. As she placed the cup back on its floral saucer and Steiner was still half-way into a barrage, she wondered if this was the first time she ever found it...endearing. She tried not to smirk—it was almost gallant of him.

Haagen and Weimar were a puddle of themselves, both of them shivering in their own boots and buckled under the volume of their Captains outburst.

“WHATDOYOUSAYTOME!!”

“SIRYESSIR!!!”

“WHATDOYOUSAYTOHER!!”

“SIRYESSIR!!”

“Now salute your general and get out of my sight you moon-faced maggots!” Steiner pointed at her, and they saluted with terror, and scattered away as Steiner hounded them for a few steps.

When their clattering faded from earshot, Steiner turned about like nothing had happened and set down the packet of paperwork he had been holding before.

“So these are from some of the nobles, I tried to figure out seating arrangements and the like but...I’ve no gift for nobles. I’d sit someone next to their mortal enemy or...something,” Steiner shook his head and Beatrix placed down the teacup. She leaned forward and ran her fingertips under her eyepatch in consternation.

Not at him—he was being more than agreeable. No, Adelbert was being wonderful about everything and it made it all the worse. Last year she would have had to go behind him and fix whatever seating catastrophe he had made—and here he was admitting he needed her help with it.

He huffed impatiently. “I know you are busy, Beatrix, but it is best if you handle this. An ounce of prevention and all that,” He tapped the papers and she looked up at him confused.

“I can trade you for...ah! The kitchens. You hate the kitchens and I can handle that without burning the keep down,” Steiner offered and Beatrix shook her head wordlessly, trying to find the words to stop the chocobo running off-track in his head.

He tilted and shook his head at her as well, lifting up the noble’s letters and frowning.

“No? Would you prefer to not deal with it then? Ah. Your sister. Well, she can be put so far in the back you won’t even see her...” Steiner grinned at the paperwork and Beatrix chuckled under her breath as she reached forward and grasped his gloved hand holding the letters.

“No, Adelbert, it’s fine. I can handle this and the kitchens; you’ve done enough for me for one day,” She finally managed and took the papers from him. He let them go with some hesitation and furrowed his brows deeper at her.

“Is something wrong, Beatrix?” He asked gruffly, pulling a chair from the corner and settling down on it. She glanced up at him, barely making eye contact before looking down at the flourishing handwriting on the envelopes.

She opened her mouth to speak, and lost all train of thought. There was too much, all at once, and Beatrix was not a woman comfortable with expressing emotion. Especially not to Adelbert Steiner. She shook her head and Steiner pulled his chair closer.

“Was it Weimar?” He asked simply and his voice was the final crack in a dam.

“It’s everything,” Her voice shook; she didn’t cry—she wouldn’t.

“Everything?”

“Everything. I don’t know what I’m doing here, Adelbert. I’m planning coronations and pomp and pageantry meanwhile a city is drowning in its own dead and I did that,” She began and he inhaled to reply, but she raised a finger to silence him.

“My very presence is inciting mutiny in some of the military, including your knights!” Beatrix pointed at the door and Steiner shrugged a shoulder with an expression like he was just trying to keep up with her.

“I’m distracted, ineffective...I’m playing the role of some coquettish handmaid to the princess because...”

“Because...?” He asked in a voice softer than she thought him capable of.

“...I feel like I’ve lost my teeth, Adelbert. Your men can’t even take an order from me, and I should have been the one to correct it and I just...couldn’t. They’re right; they shouldn’t have to take orders from me at this point,” Beatrix interlocked her fingers to keep from fidgeting them together, and Steiner’s hand entered her vision, stopping just short of her own.

“War is cruel, Beatrix. Always. Even when you win, you lose. You carry the horrors you suffer and inflict...everywhere. You weren’t so different after the last time you faced an army,” He offered, and she smirked ruefully at him. He was right—the battle that won her her legacy still haunted her dreams some nights. She looked up briefly and his gaze was gentle—she was struck by the fact that through all this he was the only one who was not judging her—damning her for everything she did.

And she felt like she had wronged him; and it pulled her gaze downward again.

“Your men hate me because I doubted your honor. Because I called you a cohort of thieves and brigands. On that campaign of Brahne’s I thought less of you than I ever have and it took Cleyra being blasted to oblivion for me to see how wrong I had been. I am...sorry. I think I’ve been trying to find a way to say it since the bandersnatches,” Beatrix crossed her arms and focused on her cup, watching Steiner’s hand curl into a fist in front of her.

“We are comrades. And while I was angry at you for a few weeks, I forgive you.” He said with such conviction that she scoffed and blinked away moisture, turning her face so her eyepatch was all he could see.

“God damn you, Adelbert,” She chuckled, and heard him bark a laugh in return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been meaning to get more into Beatrix’s backstory as I go on, and so I decided to sprinkle it all over the place in this haphazard, time jumping, brick-a-brack of a fic. 
> 
> What do you guys think?
> 
> Oh! And for those who have a hard time with all caps (trust me, I get it), I have translated below:
> 
> “When your General gives you orders, you do them, you miserable louts, you disgrace to the crown! Who do you think you are questioning a General? When she says ‘Jump’ you ask ‘How High?’ And when I give you an order, you do it. Weimar, if you spent as much time training as you did being snide, you’d be captain. Haagen, if you give me lip, one more time, I will make you kiss dirt for a week.” -Steiner.


	21. Side effects include:

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the end of time, our heroes find out just how much of Memoria they carry with them, and what effects they have to live with for the time being...or even permanently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A direct off-shoot of ‘Twin Souled’, so I would recommend backtracking to that one to understand this one a bit better. 
> 
> Inspiration from the exposition of Memoria from Garland; that all memory and time converges near the crystal and that our party was way too close to the ‘point zero’ of all time and space.
> 
> Also: Much, much needed fluff. I’m happy you guys have made it this far, and I only hope you enjoy.

_After the End of Time  
Sometime after the events of Memoria   
  
_

_*_

The Hilda Garde III landed in Lindblum Castle, and the Red Rose limped it’s way there as well. The party of heroes who faced oblivion’s wrath were exhausted beyond measure. Garnet went quietly to her own room before Eiko followed her, and Amarant slept on a bench in the fountain area of the castle with Quina’s head on his shoulder. Vivi sat on the first available chair and snoozed softly with Freya leaning on a wall nearby, her lance away from her and at rest.

Steiner’s body was as heavy as his armor, but he pushed himself forward nonetheless. Cid directed him to where the Red Rose will make repairs, and he marched there with every muscle screaming. When he saw the airship, he almost openly wept in relief.

The side was busted apart, claw marks torn into the cherry painted wood and bits of feathery glass were shattered against the siding. It looked like it had crash landed and took a canon volley at the same time, and when his knights and Beatrix descended, his heart leapt into his throat.

They’re alive, and he hadn’t seen them in a lifetime.

His eyes locked on her—always her—and she was moving towards him before his knights found their footing off the ship. Steiner closed the distance and her hands grasped at the neckline of his breastplate—she looked up at him with a dazzling and proud smile and her eye was a burning gold—

He pressed his forehead against hers, the only true contact he could have without throwing his gauntlets across the landing platform and ~by god~ he is considering it—

“I missed you,” He admitted gruffly, his brows knitting and his heart still pounding in his throat. His eyes burned and there was ricocheting chain lighting inside his chest; she chuckled, ran her fingers along the contours of his jaw and held him under his chain hood, grounding him and steadying him on his swerving sense of balance.

“Its only been a day, Captain,” She teased, and he shook his head and stifled a sob.

“Not for me, it hasn’t.” It had been...decades. Eons. All of his life and a blink of an eye. Her gaze changed; from awed to crestfallen in a moment, and she frowned.

“Then hold me, Sir Knight,” She murmured it like a spell and an order, and he smirked ruefully down at his chest.

“The cuirass is in the way, remember?”

“I don’t care.”

And as he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her to him, she managed to knock his helmet off his head with a clatter and pushed down the chain hood, her hands entangling around his skull and she held onto him as tightly as he did her. Her fingernails scrapped against his scalp for purchase and her cheek pressed against his own as he buried half his face into her hair and shoulder. It was awkward, working around the breastplate with the height difference, but he wasn’t going to let her go for the world.

And he didn’t; even as his knights gathered around them, and Weimar let loose a wail of relief and crashed into their embrace. Haagen sniffled and grasped their other side, and so on fell the lot of them. Laudo, Blutzen, Kohel, Dojebon, Mullenkedheim, and finally Breirecht piled into a massive group-hug of creaking plate mail and weeping grown men.

He opened his mouth to bellow at them for...something; maybe being too close to a commanding officer or crying in public and other un-knightly things; but he felt Beatrix’s smile against his skin and couldn’t honestly protest them too much.

***

Garnet is the one who tells Beatrix about Memoria, about what happened to them. Doctor Tot is in attendance, taking diligent notes and positing his theories and observations as Garnet speaks. Steiner has been asleep for three days, and Beatrix is past being worried about him and her solemn Queen.

Garnet’s story doesn’t assuage her worry. At all.

“So, Memoria actually existed outside of our reality? Our laws of time, space—” The good Doctor began, holding his temple and looking down at his notebooks and pens.

“Of everything. Outside our very perception of ourselves. At least, that’s what I noticed. Garland said that Memoria was a sort of zero-point in our universe. The closer we got to the crystal, the less there was...otherness,” Garnet paced along the rows of bookshelves, her fingers dancing playfully along the colorful spines.

The library was empty save them three, and Beatrix stood vigil on the marble steps, ensuring their privacy and listening in. The General crossed her arms, trying to wrap her head around what even...any of it meant.

“Less otherness? What do you mean?” Doctor Tot asked, pen ready on his book.

Garnet held onto her pendant, her expression pensive and thoughtful.

“There just...wasn’t time, or space. It was all at once and everything was everywhere. Garland said even our memories started to merge,” She said, turning to face the two of them. Doctor Tot scribbled furiously, even making little drawings and diagrams. Of what, Beatrix couldn’t imagine.

“Memories started to merge...can you give me an example?” He asked without looking up from his maddened scribble.

Garnet pressed her forefinger to her chin, and her face lit up. She flicked her attention to Beatrix with a smile.

“I have a good one, and since you are in attendance, Beatrix, might I tell one of yours?” The young woman asked cordially, and Beatrix was offset for two reasons: one, that it was her memory somehow, and two, that this was even possible.

“Well, technically, it is Steiner’s, but it involves you, well, us,” Garnet corrected, and Beatrix tilted her head, but waved her hand in affirmation anyway, and Garnet nodded once before turning to Doctor Tot.

“I am standing on the dock, wearing clothes that are stuffy and uncomfortable, but decorum demands it, so I wear them anyway,” the Queen began, and she closed her eyes and pressed her fingers to her collar like she wad adjusting something not there, “I am a chaperone at the princess’s tenth birthday party. She demanded that I be in attendance, so I am,” Garnet smiled softly.

“I remember when I wouldn’t go anywhere without him—Steiner, I mean...when I was so nervous to be alone in the big castle, especially after father died...” She opened her eyes slowly and Doctor Tot murmured a small, “Focus, princess,”

She shook her head and closed her eyes again.

“My apologies...the further from Memoria the more hazy this process becomes. Anyway,” Her fingers were at her collarbone again.

“There are so many nobles, and I instruct them on which ways to go, tell them to stay off the grass,” She chuckled breathlessly at that, and Beatrix felt a twitch of a smile. She knew this night. She remembered what Steiner looked like in his courtly best. Out of place, exposed, and in his own way, awkwardly dashing.

“And none of them are listening...one of them calls me a common idiot and I seethe,” She frowned, but then smiles again, “Then, suddenly, someone is beside me. It’s Beatrix and I know it is before ever I see her,” Garnet’s smile became softer, her eyes flitted beneath their lids, “She smells like roses, like usual, but there’s lilac too, and when I look at her, I think...I’m about to say something discourteous...or scathing...but I freeze when I see her. And Beatrix is beautiful, she’s always been beautiful, that has never been a question...

“But she’s breathtaking and standing beside me at a perfect parade rest,” Garnet opened her eyes with an incredulous smile, “I have no idea what parade rest is but Steiner does. Anyway, I digress,” She closed her eyes again and Beatrix crossed her arms tighter to contain the warmth that flooded through her.

“She’s just as critical of the nobles as I am, even as she looks like one. Her hair is braided and twirled down one shoulder, and she’s in a periwinkle blue gown, and there’s a scar on her bicep...her eyes narrow at a couple that were laughing at me. She’s furious but for once it’s not at me, and she looks up and asks me a question. I don’t hear it, and she smirks. She teases me about it. Tells me the nobles have no right to push me around; to stop patrolling for once. She pulls me away from the waterfront...and that’s where I lose it,” Garnet opened her eyes and looked at Beatrix, and the General smiled, despite the oddity.

Doctor Tot is still scribbling away, and Garnet turns her attention to Beatrix fully. The Queen smiled abashedly, and Beatrix exhaled in amazement.

“Strong memories float to the surface most often, and out of Steiner’s, that was one of his strongest. He was right, you looked wonderful. I do hope it wasn’t too personal, Beatrix,” Garnet knit her brows in worry, the knight shook her head.

“Specific, yes. I didn’t know that evening made that much of an impression,” The General admitted, and Garnet laughed lightly.

“Indeed, nor I. I remember being very happy when he came into the ballroom,”

“Her majesty did seem very fond of him, back then.”

“I was...I had forgotten that the last few years, much to my shame. How is he?” Garnet asked, her gaze downcast to the tiled marble. Doctor Tot’s scratching quill filled the silence between them.

“He’s resting. He’s been asleep for seventy-two hours,” Beatrix answered smoothly, masking the tremor of admitting it. Garnet nodded, knowingly. It made Beatrix clench her jaw.

“His was an ordeal and a half, I’m sure. There were four of us who faced that dark Eidolon, Necron. He was...not one of them?” Garnet shook her head, like what she said was wrong.

“He was there—but he also was not. Much akin to how Eiko sustained me, he sustained Lady Freya. Eiko has been in the same predicament, and I’m sure Vivi and Quina are asleep as well,” Garnet pressed her fist to her chin as she went on, and Doctor Tot’s pen moved even faster in the excitement.

“You had a second breath, those you listed did not,” Doctor Tot mused, not looking up from his paper. Beatrix blinked slowly at her Queen and the good Doctor.

“Interesting. Will they be alright?” Beatrix asked directly, interested only because of the weight of her concern for her Captain.

“I would assume that since they are alive, yes. But we don’t know the effects of these...bonded memories you all have,” Doctor Tot expressed, and Garnet shook her head.

“According to Garland, they will fade, like old dreams. The only ones who may keep them are those who were bonded. Eiko and myself, for example,” Garnet said, and Beatrix sighed through her nose and shook her head.

“Very well. And those will serve no detriment to you, your majesty?” Beatrix asked, eyeing her monarch with concern. Garnet smiled, nodded her head.

Beatrix left them to their scribing, she was better at reading reports, anyway, and by the grace of all that was Adelbert was awake when she returned to her temporary quarters. (Temporary as the castle was still in repairs.) He was muddled and slow to respond, but chirped up after a few hours and a few meals.

Beatrix was elated all the same.

***

Freya stepped onto the stones in front of Mercury’s Fountain, in the courtyard of Alexandria Castle, and frowned at the damage. The lip of the fountain was broken, disabling it until it’s repair.

Freya had never been told what the name of the fountain was. But she knew it well. Dagger made her way to the castle proper, and Freya felt a small urge to follow her. When she saw Steiner march behind his Queen, she gasped lightly as she remembered herself.

Did Steiner have this problem? This...herself and him, back and forth? Odd. The dragon knight shook her head at herself and walked toward the castle with her friends and the girl who was not her queen.

*

Later, Lady Freya has decided that she will go back to Burmecia with Sir Fratley, and rebuild their kingdom with Prince Puck. She has stayed the last few days in Alexandria, and the feeling of being completely home and misplaced is as confusing as it is disquieting.

As she is making her way down the grand staircase and out into the red carpeted foyer, her blue piercing gaze catches Beatrix, and a smirk grows on her face.

The General gives her a nod of her head, to which the knight knits her brows at the formality. Beatrix looks as presentable as ever, but Freya smiles to herself as she catches something off about the woman’s uniform.

“Your sword belt is askew, General,” Lady Freya says in passing, and she hears the holy knight stop in her tracks. That’s odd.

“What of it?” The General’s tone is clipped but unsure. Lady Freya halts herself, and turns to the Alexandrian with the same tease of a smirk.

“A General should be immaculate at all times,” She says the same thing she has always said, and Beatrix’s gaze grows more and more confused by the moment.

Freya’s blood runs cold and her smile drops. She has never said what she just said. They aren’t her words.

There is rain and thunder and blood on pavement, an arrogant boast as the woman before her lays all of Freya’s training low. There is tense camaraderie in Treno, growing into an uneasy understanding that Freya still is not comfortable with.

Beatrix and Freya are not friends. Freya did not delight in vexing her for no reason.

Freya is not Adelbert; and Beatrix is not her oldest friend.

This joke did not belong to her.

A mortified stillness flits between them. Thankfully, Beatrix merely looks concerned and befuddled.

“My apologies, General. I forgot myself,” Freya turns to walk away, salvage what dignity she could.

“Will there be moments...when he sees me through your eyes?”

Freya halts mid-step, her clawed feet buckled under her foot and scraping her toes against the rug. A chill runs through her, and she slowly turns back to look at the stoic expression of the woman before her. How terrible, it was, that Freya was not her friend, when even her blankest expression was not lost on the Burmecian, nor ever could be. She knew too much of Beatrix to ever hate her like she once did.

Beatrix stands on the second landing of the staircase, her hand grasped on the marble banister, looking at Freya with an uncertain gaze that the dragoon knew; but did not know where from. Freya wants to say something to soothe the shock of whatever just occurred.

“I would think Steiner’s conviction and affection for you rings true. Perhaps that is why, when I look at you, I do not see—”

“The butcher of Burmecia.” Her voice cuts like a blade, so it does!

“I do not believe so, no,” Freya continues forcefully. Beatrix blinks and gives a subtle shake of her head. Freya smiles ruefully and with compassion.

“I believe that love overrules vehemence. That is why when Adelbert thinks of my Sir Fratley he remembers more of our tender moments than of the heartbreak I live with now. I do not think him capable of hating you, Beatrix. He never could before,” Freya assures, gives the General a small bow, and leaves the city that is not her home.

***

Adelbert Steiner is not Lady Freya, but for a solid season after Memoria he carried her quietness with him.

Steiner was never a man to brood—not silently! He seethed in corners with a great amount of noise, and he tended to shake with emotion whenever he was excited or agitated—stillness for him meant fear, or the calm before battle. And lately he had been...quiet.

He took to walking—not patrolling—around the castle as the repairs and reparations of the castle go along magnificently smoothly. The lack of mist on the continent makes many aspects of life easier, even as it renders their airships useless.

He should be clanking around the castle at a mile a minute, bellowing and shouting his praises and his annoyances. And he does so!

But not as often. And not as loudly.

Steiner found himself thinking more often than yelling and clanking around—and Marcus even made a joke about it, because of course he did.

“Only took the end of the world to make you think, eh, Rusty?”

“Har de har, thief.” He grumbled in response, and it wasn’t until Beatrix asked him—repeatedly—if he was alright that he realized that Freya was still in his steps, despite her having been half the continent away.

*

“Are you sure?” She asked him in a murmur. Beatrix’s head rested on his chest as it had almost every night since he and Garnet returned. Since the night she almost fled her homeland...and him. Since he confessed he could not lose her as much as she had fought to keep him.

“I think so,” He admitted, his brows knit in confusion. Her hair tickled his chin but his arms were busy holding her at the moment, and Steiner didn’t want to move.

“‘Think’ so. That’s very obtuse for you, Captain,” Her voice barely registered in her own voice box, but he felt it in waves on his body. The title of his rank made him blink.

“I just...don’t know how else to describe it. It’ll pass, I’m sure. Besides, the Queen has been just as withdrawn and moody and no one seems to treat her like anything is wrong,” Steiner argued almost petulantly, and Beatrix huffed a laugh and nuzzled into his breast.

“There you are,” She praised softly, curling into him as if she could hold onto any more of him; her leg around his and her arm up around his middle.

“Garnet is a seventeen year old girl who has not seen her first love in a little over a year. She has a country on her shoulders as said teenager. Her silent moodiness is to be expected. Garnet has always been,” Beatrix sharply inhaled as she searched for the word, “reserved in her tortuous angst, I suppose,” She said with a head shake, and Steiner pressed his smile into her crown affectionately, and to scratch the tickle away.

“Besides, you are not wallowing in some pent-up unrequited or denied love, hmm?” She teased again, and Steiner scoffed powerfully enough to bounce the snickering General draped over him.

“Well, not anymore,” He grumbled with a smirk, and blinked away the thoughts of Fratley and Freya and her losing her love not once, but twice. Steiner shook his head, still buried in her mane of bronze and roses and tangled her in deceptively powerful limbs.

She helped make him sure that he would eventually be only himself again.

“Do you think Lady Freya obsessively plots patrol routes around her Prince, periodically?” She asked—and Adelbert laughed until his ribs hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Garnet makes an appearance! I plan on delving a bit more into Garnet and Steiner; as they should have more of a rapport in my mind than exasperated liege/hounding protector. Though that is fun too.


	22. Climbing Waterfalls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting back to Alexandria has more challenges than cliff sides.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This acts as mostly a bridge between Treno and Alexandria in their relationship; as organically as I could manage. I can definitely see Beatrix thinking about leaving long before it ever happens, and this is what sort of comes about. 
> 
> If it doesn’t feel finished yet, her turn of heart, it’s because I wanted to keep in that listless feeling she still has up until the very end of the story. (Game’s Epilogue)

Somewhere beneath Alexandria,

Early Spring, 1850

_”...I thought about giving up my knighthood many times...” Steiner, aboard the Invincible overlooking the world._

  
“Kweh!!” Cried the chocobo that was pulling their carriage. Beatrix jostled in the pitch-black space with every bump and twist and turn in the road, knocking into Marcus or the stone wall that was Steiner’s shoulder. They were all jumbled about in the small space, a hand braced here, a leg locked there, just to keep themselves from twisting up like twine in a broken spinning wheel. 

The carriage was more of a wagon, which was more of a box on rickety wheels, and Beatrix wondered what on Gaia did Aveline tote in these rocky, unstable death traps? It certainly wasn’t soldiers or anything living, not with the bruises she was forming.

Her hand lost grip on the side of the box as they hit a nasty bump, and she landed almost squarely on her side on top of...someone. His groan gave it away.

“Hnf. If you could keep to your seat, General,” She heard him huff at her and she tried to right herself only to find the only true purchase was him. She became very aware of his warm hand on her hip, and hers planted on his broad chest.

“If you would remove your hand, Captain,” She said through clenched teeth, and whatever he did simply made them fall into a corner of the rocking box together.

“Man, watch it! You kicked me!” Blank’s indignation sparked in the dark.

“My feet are literally under me, maybe it was Freya,” Marcus added, his voice it’s normal unflappable tone.

“If I had kicked one of you, you’d be wearing your entrails,” Freya mused from somewhere behind Steiner.

“That would explain the stabbing in my back,” The knight grumbled, and Freya chuckled an apology all the same. Beatrix simply tried to find a position that didn’t involve being half fused with any of them.

It was not successful.

***

Marcus was not a fan of the wet. And they were literally climbing waterfall cliffs.

“Rusty, what kind of half-baked plan was this?” Blank exclaimed as they looked up the crumbling walkway that used to make this path viable. Marcus was sure he still had one of Freya’s toe claws in his spine and they were about to have to parkour up a slippery, dank surface for about a hundred feet.

Freya scoffed at the lot of them and leapt that hundred feet with ease. She lighted at the top and shouted down, “I shall dispatch of the beasts whilst you hurry!”

Marcus was not thrilled about the climb, and Steiner glowered up the walkway and nodded.

“It’s been neglected and thus ignored. We can get into the harbor this way without ever being noticed,” He announced with positivity, and Blank took his first few steps up the stone path. There were broken bridges, dangling rope handholds, and rotted flags marking the way.

“When I break a hip, you’re carrying me for the rest of my life, Rusty.” Marcus decided and followed after Blank. When Steiner lagged behind, he turned to look at their two resident knights pausing before the falls.

Beatrix clasped an elbow and stared at some point in the waterfall, and Steiner was looking at her with knit brows and a deep frown.

Marcus quickly decided that this was not his business.

“We’ll see you up there,” He nodded at Rusty and the knight nodded back, and he pushed a pausing Blank up the rickety rope bridges.

“The heck is wrong with them?”

“Not our problem, bro. Let them figure it out.”

*

“I cannot do this, Adelbert.”

Her words stopped him in his tracks. Steiner turned from Marcus as the thief went forward, and tilted his head at her.

“We’ll see you up there,” Marcus called back to him, and the thief gave him a knowing nod. Steiner pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded awkwardly at the man in a strange sort of thanks.

“What is it, Beatrix?” He asked, walking to her side and gesturing to the cliff. “It’s not far of a climb.”

“That’s not it.” She said with a shake of her head, her fingers digging into her own bicep now.

“Then what is it? We have to do this at twilight or it will not work,” Steiner urged and she shook her head defiantly. She was always defiant with him!

“It has nothing to do with the falls, Adelbert! I just—nevermind. Let’s get this over with,” Beatrix took a stomp towards the path and Steiner caught her by the elbow.

“Don’t. Look at me and tell me what’s going on,” He...well, he didn’t order per se, insisted? Pleaded?

“Why am I going back? Why am I doing this? Why did I let you talk me into this—in fact—why did you? You’d be better off with someone else as General,” She tugged on his hand and he let go hesitantly. She would not meet him in the eyes. Her tone was anything but formal.

This was not like her. She couldn’t ground him in this moment.

So, in a flash, he decided to be a lightning rod on his own—for her sake.

“Do not flee from this, Beatrix,” He said straight with no preamble. This was not the time to fight with her for the fun of it. She crossed her arms and glared up at him, her eye as dark as the night sky and glistening.

“I am not fleeing. I am the woman who stood complacently by while atrocity tore apart our world. I know you have this pipe dream of Garnet replacing her mother but you do not know what Brahne has become, what I became!” She tried to keep her voice down and it was a strangled and uncomfortable sound, and Steiner’s frown could do naught but deepen at what she was saying.

“I spent the entirety of my career becoming the best General that Alexandria had ever known and it ended in disgrace, shackled to a mad tyrant hell-bent on the destruction of even her allies. For a time I even thought she was right—it took her almost beheading her own daughter. What does this tell you, Adelbert? I shouldn’t be anywhere near this or any reclamation of the throne,” She continued and Steiner stepped toward her.

“You are not some hapless monster, Beatrix. You made a grave error within your character, we can—”

“Within my character—Within. My. Character?!” Her voice was raising now, her gaze livid, and at least she was fighting back instead of simply wallowing in her thoughts, oh, but she was getting angrier by the moment!

“Yes, within your character! That’s not the point, I was going to say—” And he was trying to be helpful but he could see it blowing up in his face and it always did with her—

“What were you going to say, Adelbert? That you aren’t surprised by what happened?”

“No, not at—”

“That while ‘I’m no monster’, I’m still a slayer of women of children?!”

“What?! No!” He simply could not get a word in edgewise!

“What, pray tell, is the flaw within your character, then? Because I can’t help but notice you here in this mess with me!” She stepped up to him and was almost nose-to-nose as much as her height would allow, and he felt a vein pulsate in his neck.

“I did what I thought was right, I brought her highness home! I didn’t think she would be in any danger at home!” He should have listened to her, Steiner would forever regret that he didn’t just ~listen~ to the princess, for once.

“You always did what you thought about Adelbert! Every. Single. Time. You fought every decision I ever made as General—”

“You spent most of your time stepping on my authority like it was owed to you!” Steiner blustered, angry and confused about this turn of direction. He needed to step back, he needed to breathe and she stepped forward as he tried to disengage.

“You could have tried to work with me through all of it! Maybe if we had, what happened with Brahne wouldn’t have! But you spent so much time being a stubborn, stone-hearted fool!”

Her words bit like her sword, but he steeled himself and took a deep breathe in through his nose, standing to his full height away from her.

“Then. Help. Me.” He stated pointedly. Purposefully. Lowly. Beatrix’s single eye barely widened and she took a half-step back.

“What?” She asked in a hoarse whisper.

“I’m saying you’re right. Look at where we are, Beatrix!” He gestured to the falls. “We are climbing up a rickety and broken down path drenched in wintry waters because this was the best I had! You would have seen Brahne’s trap coming a mile away—you would have listened to Garnet—if our roles were reversed I would fallen in Burmecia,” He stopped, scoffed, and laughed darkly.

“No, Brahne would have left me in Alexandria and fed me to her pets,” He corrected. Beatrix crossed her arms and stepped forward and he held up a finger.

“I cannot do this alone. I will fail every time. You are the strategist, not me. I am good at following orders, not making them. We are our best help to Alexandria in tandem. If you leave, I have no choice but to follow you,” Steiner finished, stepped back, stood at parade rest.

Letting go of pride is always hard. It is the worst medicine to swallow; but perhaps, for her, for once, it was worth it.

“And where will I go, Adelbert?” Beatrix set her hands on her hips, watching some point on his coat.

“I may be a stone hearted fool,” He began and she tried to protest, but he continued, “But yours will always pull you back. If you were any other way, you would not be haunted as you are now.”

Beatrix looked up the falls, back to him, and back up the waterway.

“When Alexandria is at peace. I’m leaving. Alone.” She stated, and Steiner nodded grimly.

“And when our kingdom is at peace and your honor and office are restored, I will let you leave without any grief,” He agreed.

***

“What the hell is happening?” Blank scoffed at the top of the falls, and Freya tilted her head curiously at the scene below. They had heard shouts, seen the two of them step back and forth in some waltz only they knew, and then watched the scene cool as the two started to climb the path.

“There’s a lot of drama between them two, bro. I’ll catch you up later,” Marcus assured, and Freya smirked to herself.

“A lot between them, indeed. Interesting,” She mused, hoisted her spear over her shoulder, and started to look for a way across the lake and to the castle town.

***

Later, Steiner realized that he lied to her. He did not let her leave without grief; and she ended up not leaving, as the story went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do love their banter; and I’m trying to balance out their fighting with the more softer scenes.


	23. Pluto Knights VI-IX

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The General, the Knights of Pluto, and navigating how best to help their kingdom in disarray.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the second part of that ‘Beatrix and the Pluto Knights’ series. I honestly have so many of these in my head, but I’m keeping myself limited to more than blurbs.

_Sometime After Alexander’s Demise_

“I’m fine, Breirecht,” She hissed, grasping at her side and wincing at her own pressing fingers. She pulled back her palms to check to see if she was bleeding, and thankfully it came back dry this time.

“If you say so, General,” The elder knight grumbled, looking at her warily under the brim of his helm. The office was still, save for Laudo’s scribbling quill.

“Alright! I’ve sent correspondence to the nobles and D’ee’s of Treno, Lindblum, as well as to Dali and the other plains villages. If not asking for help, then at least informing them of what has happened!” Laudo blew on the parchment to dry the ink, and Beatrix leaned on her hand bracing the table to keep standing. Her side throbbed and shot fire down to her hip and she clenched her jaw.

“General maybe you should sit down,” Breirecht offered, and the softness in his tone flared her temper. She took a deep breath in through her nose and murmured a Cura again—magic had its uses, but it was limited when it was trying to work miracles. The wound she sustained should have killed her; her healing was the only thing keeping her going.

“I’m fine. Let me see those,” She held her hand out to the letters, and Laudo gave them to her with a wary expression. Beatrix flipped through the four or five pages, and raised a brow at their eloquence.

“You have aspirations to be a writer, Laudo?” She asked, and the man blanched and shifted in his boots.

“Yes ma’am. My father paid for my commission though...I asked the Captain if I could get a refund on the years I have left...wanted to go to Lindblum, start my book,” His voice got lower and lower, until his gaze sank to the floor. Beatrix looked at Brierecht with knit brows and the old knight shook his head with a shrug.

“Captain said no,” The writer continued, and Beatrix nodded with a ghost of a grin. Steiner would never have let someone out of their oaths.

“And now, I don’t think it would be right for me to just walk away,”

“Especially when your talents are useful here. These are excellent, and the nobles should respond favorably. Might even catch the eyes of some of the D’ee’s,” Beatrix affirmed, handing them off to Brierecht to be shipped to the proper places.

Laudo nodded solemnly, and sighed a dramatic one. “The life of an artist forever kept from his work. It’s the theme of my book, you know! A sculptor, torn from his life, kidnapped by airship pirates!” Laudo began with a bright expression, and Brierecht slapped the table with Laudo’s hard work.

“All right, son! Get to Haagen. He’ll have something for ya! General don’t need your life story! Or whatever that was!” He waved the younger knight away, who saluted the General properly before he left. Breirecht waited until Laudo’s footsteps faded, and turned to give Beatrix the same wary look Laudo had given earlier.

Beatrix scratched under her eyepatch in agitation.

“What?” She asked with a sigh, and the knight just shook his head.

“Just lookin’ after ya, General. Cap said—”

“No, he didn’t. He didn’t have the time, did he? You pulled him from that armor and they flew off to Lindblum. So what is it, Brierecht?” Beatrix’s knees shook and she sat down at the writing desk, a smooth scent of fresh ink and paper wafting around her spot.

“The only thing he asked about was you. He was barely awake and he asked where you were, told us to find you. I think that’s the same thing, yeah?”

Beatrix blinked, looked down at her uninjured hand and thrummed her fingers against the wood of the desk.

“He’s an honorable man. Chivalry demands we look after our fellows,” Beatrix answered in a terse murmur and the old knight shook his head.

“Sorry, General. You’re Stuck with us ‘til he comes back,” Breirecht saluted with a wry grin and left her in the office alone. Beatrix blinked again, opened her mouth to spew some retort, gaped, and sat back in the seat with an indignant huff. It wasn’t a feeling she was used to, their endearing loyalty. Perhaps not to her, but for her sake.

No, not used to it at all. She smiled at the doorway all the same.

***

_After the party leaves for Ipsen’s Castle_

Beatrix watched the Hilda Garde III fly away from the wreckage of her home and country, and shuttered in the chill of the sunset. Alexandria had a small airship dock for the castle itself, and the third of Regent Cid’s incredible airships had taken up nearly the entire space. The Red Rose was stationed in her reserved place, having not been flown since Brahne’s parting.

She had a feeling the airship would be needed in the coming conflict with Kuja. Zidane might have wrangled the Hilda Garde III from the weapon merchant’s hands, but Beatrix was sure that Kuja had something else up his sleeve. Always something else. In the brief time Beatrix had known the tempestuous sorcerer, his beguiling nature always hid something more—promised more. Garnet and her fellows would need Alexandria’s aid, and Beatrix was determined to be ready for when their Queen asked.

Even if Garnet never did.

Beatrix’s fingers tingled like Thundara had struck her when she kissed her Captain good-bye...and she shook her head at her own foolishness. Now was not the time.

She made her way to the Red Rose, sending a soldier to call upon the Knights of Pluto.

*

“So what are we doing, General?” Dojebon asked, looking along the line of the Red Rose’s artillery and barely stocked munitions. The ship was lovely, more a vessel of aesthetic and beauty than a warship equivalent to anything Lindblum had. The wood was cherry and mahogany and even the artillery on the ship was pampered and showroom ready.

But it needed to have teeth.

“I want the munitions stocked. The guns revived and recalibrated. I want the engines looked over and refitted,” Beatrix pointed to each section of the ship in question as she spoke, and Mullenkedheim, beside Dojebon, scratched his calf with the heel of his boot awkwardly.

“Okay. Why us?” He asked with an eyebrow raise and a glance at Dojebon.

Beatrix pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Breirecht said one of you was an expert artillerist,” She began and Dojebon raised his hand, “and one of you was an excellent gopher.” She finished and Mullenkedheim glowered in disappointment. She smirked wryly.

“I need this done and I know I can trust you to do it. Your Captain will need you and the Queen will need this vessel,” Beatrix assured and Dojebon’s eyes lit up.

“You really think so, General?”

“I have preternatural instincts...ah, whichever one you are,” Beatrix waved a hand at the marksman and he scoffed with a grin.

“It isn’t the point. Alexandria’s air power is limited to the Red Rose, and I want her ready to fight dragons like the one that attacked Alexandria,” She finished with a nod, and the knights saluted with gusto.

“SIRYESSIR!” They both blanched at their mistake, but Beatrix waved them away with a shake of her head.

***

Later, Beatrix would realize just how right she was about those dragons, and the Pluto Knights were braver than they ever had been before. For their Captain, and their General.


	24. Three Snippets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1) A point of contention between our knights and the consequences of their bickering. 
> 
> 2) A ball where the pair have opinions and revelations about the other. 
> 
> 3) When the Knights of Pluto’s morning heckling turns confusing and dangerous for Steiner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So these kinda jumped from other scenarios I had alluded to before. Hope they fit in well!
> 
> Also, I’m noticing I’m doing a lot of pre-game stuff because in game content with Beatrix is either 1) boss fight or 2) letter scene. If it gets annoying or you would prefer other topics just message me. I dunno, this is a small fandom, I’m having fun with my fave pair while working on my storytelling skillzzzz.

*** _1791_

Beatrix’s hand curls into fist and she thinks about punching him in his square jaw for what he dares insinuate. The women training around and with her all go silent on the fairgrounds.

“Excuse me?” She seethes, and indignant fury she has never known blossoms in her chest. The man before her scowls deeply and sets his stance like he is daring her to go on and do it.

“You’re an arrogant pup who bought your way here, do you also have hearing difficulties?!” He growls, and she steps up to him and lifts up on the balls of her feet to level with him.

“I. Bought. Nothing. You pompous, self-righteous nonce!” She bellows at him, and her throat hurts from the force. She has never had to bellow at anyone before this moment. He doesn’t even flinch. His eyes are dark and unyielding and she hates it—

“I worked and fought to be where I am! I’ve been training to be a knight since I was seven! As proper! What did you do but be lucky?!” She keeps her fists to her side because if she moves she will start swinging—

“You think this is luck?! You think I didn’t sacrifice everything to be here? That I don’t know what I’m training?!” Steiner shot back, his voice blasts in her ears and she curls her nose at him.

“I think you’re an idiot and a fool who plays at being knight but has no idea what he’s getting into!” She snarls, and a group of women off to the side shuffle around a woman pushing through the throng.

“All right, Steiner! Leave the squire alone!” The older woman yells, and Steiner snaps to parade rest at the sight of her.

“Colonel Maia,” Beatrix greets, and the colonel points a finger directly at Beatrix’s nose.

“Shut it. You argued with a superior officer in front of subordinates. Latrine duty. All tonight,” She orders and Beatrix gapes. Scrubbing outhouses?! Her?! What was this?!

Steiner’s stone grimace cracks a smirk, and a white-hot sear of mortification flares through her.

“Nuh-uh. Adelbert, you insulted a knight’s honor, you join her,” The colonel orders in turn, and Steiner sputters a response.

“But! No! She—”

“Shut it, Adelbert! Go! I’ll handle your training duties for the rest of the day!” Maia snaps her fingers and Steiner salutes, to which Beatrix follows suit bitterly.

“I hate you,” She mutters to him, and he grumbles a “Likewise,” in return.

*

“This is hell,” He muses as he stands before the row of outhouses stretching down the fairground. They seem to go on forever, and Beatrix scoffs beside him.

“In that case, we choose our own hell, because this is entirely your fault,” She replies, and puts on the elbow long canvas gloves for the job.

Leaving him the wrist length ones. And he puts them on while glaring at her smug smirk.

“Come now, LT. Lighten up. It’s not even the hottest day this summer,” She teases cruelly, and he grabs up the hooked pole to start tackling the outhouses.

“Have you ever done this before, Lieutenant?” He asks with a growing grin, and her face drops into an expressionless mask.

“Oh good. It’ll be an experience for you,” Steiner snickers and opens the door to the outhouse. A generation of flies and other insects escape the wooden confines like the rank smell of the bucket they have to clean. The first time Steiner ever smelled this, he was ten years old and threw up all over Breirecht’s boots. He glances back and almost laughs at the green creeping up Beatrix’s face.

“It’s not even the hottest day,” He reminds, and hooks at the bucket beneath the dingy seat and yanks it out, the contents sloshing menacingly like a mist monster ready to strike. Beatrix takes a step back and turns her face away from the roiling stench of feces.

“Alright. So. Do you want to wrangle the bucket or clean the outhouse itself?” He asks, mostly because it doesn’t seem like she can make a coherent sentence and it’s too fun to let this moment pass. She shakes her head and he leans toward her, mimicking an earnest expression of concern.

“I’m sorry, m’lady, what was that?” He asks, and she glares whole blades at him.

“I will handle the bucket. You stick your girth into that fetid, rotting place you base born bastard, it is where you belong!” She spits out, snatching the pole from him and he fights the laughter he is having at her expense.

“It’s only the first one, Miss D’Belrosa, and the day is just starting!”

“Choke in there, Steiner.”

*** _1795_

Steiner shifted in his new breeches and boots, looking down at the blue quilted doublet that was his formal wear. It was a gift from the former General many years ago, and while it was fashionable and looked well on him, he felt...naked and bare in cloth alone. His head was cold in the sunset air, and he could see his breath when he exhaled.

A small crowd of nobles exited the gondola of the river to attend the ball happening in the castle, and they all either ignored him or mocked him as they went by. The Princess’s birthday was always something to celebrate! Especially in the wake of her father’s death...

“My lord you cannot drink from the fountain!” He called out to a man with an enormous mustache and foppish hair curls who insisted on rinsing out his flask in the view of the public. The nobleman looked up at him, tossed his half-cape over his shoulder and blustered like Steiner had insulted his family legacy.

“Out of the way, don’t you know who I am?! Idiot...” The noble drunkenly stumbled past Steiner smelling exclusively of perfume and rum. Steiner sighed and went back to his self-appointed post of corralling the visiting dignitaries.

Who ignored and harassed him mostly.

A woman with dark tresses in a golden gown and a magnificent feathered parasol sauntered up to him, and her voice was deep and silken. She touched his shoulder lightly and he tensed up the entire arm.

“Might you show me the way to the party, good sir?” She practically purred and Steiner knit his brows in confusion. Who talked that way? It sounded indecent.

“The ball is directly behind me, m’lady. You cannot miss it, simply follow the walkways,” He pointed in the only direction to go and she took a step back, gave him a strange look, and scoffed as light at her intrusive fingertips.

“My mistake, I thought you were escorting,” Her voice went from silk to snide and he puzzled over where he made a mistake to upset her. As she sashayed away, he shook his head. Nobles. He would never understand them.

It was too cold. He shifted. The golden sun shattered against the Raza and partially blinded him towards the town across the water, turning it into a silhouette of its skyline. Steeples and a bell tower, the inn and tavern and theatre he could make out just from their shades alone.

What was he doing here? The princess asked for his presence, and he was doing his duty. An intrusive thought of simply going back to the barracks for the evening entered his mind, and he wondered what ever anyone would ever want his presence for anyway. Besides to be a valet or a chaperone.

He felt a warmth by his side, and he almost knew who it was before he looked. That faint scent of roses always gave her away, and...something different that made him second guess, and...

And she was radiant.

Her mane was tamed into a braid of bronze that cascaded down one shoulder, her gown a glittering periwinkle that put the sky to shame. Her arms were bare save for a gemstone bracelet and a scar on her bicep, and the neckline of the gown dropped further than he had ever seen, and the smooth length of her neck dragged his eyes to her collarbone...he snapped his focus back up to her expression. Her eye was critical on the nobles around him, and her stance was a perfect mirror of his own.

She did not look pleased. But...it wasn’t at him. There was a static in the air, but not the kind he was used to from her. She called lightning into his bones and she hadn’t even said anything to him today.

“They’re an absolute gaggle of fools, aren’t they?” She said smoothly, her voice a mask of displeasure. He swallowed thickly and willed his mind to clear.

“Ah. They are nobles. Perhaps it is a dignity I am not wise enough to see,” He replied lamely, looking about the wandering flock of obnoxious frills and laces.

“No,” She shook her head and looked directly at him. The eyepatch she wore went with the dress, embroidered gold and beaded with accented colors. Her gaze was unreadable, but perhaps his head simply wasn’t as clear as it should have been.   
  


“What are you doing out here, Adelbert?”  
  


“The princess asked for my presence. She was no doubt wondering if I could aid her guests,” He answered and looked back out to the throng. He heard her sigh, and felt her hand curl around his bicep and gently tug him away towards the castle foyer.

His entire arm went half limp, like after being struck by Thundara.

“Garnet has been asking about you all night, you know. Her father is gone, she will benefit from your presence,” Beatrix said, her voice smoother than the purring woman with the feathered parasol. Her hand was strong and gripped him firmly, and he didn’t feel the need to flee like he had with...any woman, really. Beatrix was...a woman.

...?!

“Are you listening to me, Adelbert?” She stopped before the red carpet of the grand hall, filled with dazzling ice sculptures, amazing smelling food, and what he swore his life to and he was having a very hard time focusing on anything but the sheen of her gown dancing against her shoulder blades.

“The princess has been asking about me?” He managed, and she shook her head and continued pulling him along.

“She is anxious to have you by her side, yes,” Beatrix affirmed, and his ears burned.

“Perhaps the male presence is soothing or...something like that,” She reasoned and tugged him into a world of fanciful clothing and pageantry.

*

“You’ve never been to a ball, have you?” Beatrix asked a few hours later, after the princess had retired. (It was well past her highness’s bedtime.) The girl had been too happy to see him, and clung to his hand the way Beatrix had clasped to his arm earlier. Her highness tugged him about to chat with affluent and influential people, and he stayed silent and uncomfortable through most of it.

When he was free, he decided to stay near the buffet table and watch the nobles flit and flout about in dances and conversation. She had come up beside him suddenly, and mocked him nonetheless.

“No, General. I have not. It is not a humble knight’s place,” He answered and Beatrix scoffed with a wave of her hand.

“Nonsense. You’re a Knight. That comes with its perks,” She leaned against one of the pillars he hid in the shadow of, and he picked at the delicacies on his plate absently. There were little shrimp things and fluffy mini cakes with frosting. The champagne was pink and sweeter than the cakes.

When he looked up, a dashing man crossed in front of them. The man’s eyes landed on Beatrix for a moment before eyeing him critically. He was brown haired and bright eyed, with angular features that had a boyish hint, and fine clothing of deep greens and golds like a romantic faerie prince. Steiner blinked before recognizing him.

“Lord Cartwright,” He greeted, and the man in question narrowed his attractive gaze at Steiner.

“D’Vry, actually,” The noble corrected and glanced at Beatrix.

“Go along, Terrance. We are discussing work related things,” She lied, smoother than the frosting on his finger cakes and Terrance Cartwright D’Vry IV smirked incredulously at Steiner.

“Oh, I’ve no worries of anything else, my dear,” He looked Steiner up and down and flipped his bangs away when he walked off.

Steiner could feel Beatrix bristle beside him.

“So that’s the D’Vry, eh?” He asked, awkwardly picking at the shrimp things and Beatrix inhaled sharply beside him.

“Indeed. His father recently lost all of his legitimate heirs, leaving Terrance to a very large fortune and legacy. D’Vry is second only to D’Travers in the world of Treno politics. I should remind him, however, that he would do well not to mock you in front of me,” She explained, crossing her arms with a hiss at the end of her words.

“You mock me all the time, Beatrix. What’s the difference?”

“I earned the right. Just because we are engaged does not mean he can trounce all over Alexandrian knights,” She insisted, and he stopped torturing his food to look at her.

“You are not fond of him. So why marry him?” He asked lowly, and Beatrix’s shoulders tensed under his gaze.

“Even General’s have expectations, it seems. My brother is very fond of the idea. My sister agrees it is a fortunate match. And I have already made history, so what’s a singular disappointment?” She shrugged, and Steiner scrunched his nose.

“You aren’t one to adhere to expectations, Beatrix.”

“I’m a noble, Adelbert, that comes with certain obligations you wouldn’t understand.”

“You are a Knight. Your obligations are your oaths, nothing more, should you wish.”

Beatrix glared at him over a shoulder, and his brows still knit together in puzzled confusion. Her gaze softened, like she was just...considering him and his words.

“Perhaps you have a point,” She agreed tersely, but he highly doubted that she would cave so easily to his disapproval.

“And what of you, Adelbert? You’re not married yet?” Ah, but she was always clever! Ever with a change of subject.

“If her majesty wanted me wed she would have issued me a bride,” He grumbled and took a bite of the shrimp thing, and Beatrix chuckled under her hand.

“Very well, I can teach you to dance, guilt free then,” She announced, taking his dainty snack plate from him and pulling him about again. He almost resisted.

Almost.

*

Later, Steiner would hear that the wedding between D’Vry and Beatrix was cancelled due to irreconcilable differences, and she never really spoke of it. He thought he had heard that her sister married the fop, but she never brought that up either.

Well, not until she had married _him_ , anyway.

*** _1797_

“I dunno, Haagen. Maia is awfully cute for an older lady. Like, I would definitely hang out beneath her balcony, if you know what I mean,” Weimar cackled lecherously and Haagen looked mortified.

Steiner stirred his coffee over the latest requisition forms Beatrix had sent him. More like ‘fetch me this, boy’ forms. They infuriated him and he was sure she took great pleasure in sending him to get things for her. He absently listened to his men gabble in their mess hall for breakfast.

“That’s simply abhorrent, Weimar. Can’t you a woo a woman properly?” Laudo bemoaned, and Weimar laughed sharply at the writer.

“What? Write them poetry and stuff? Ah man, I got all those moves practiced to perfection, my friend!” The ladies man boasted, and Haagen scoffed.

“Practice is all you’ve got. No actual battles yet, I bet,” He grumbled and Weimar poked him in the head.

“Hey! For your information I spent last weekend with Tracy in her bunk, so stuff it!”

“That would explain these forms for new locks on the south end barrack,” Steiner took a long drink of his coffee and slammed his mug down. His men all jumped in unison.

“Ah, c’mon, Cap. But the Alexandrian ladies are so lovely! You can’t really blame me,”

“Oh we’ll blame you alright, Weimar,” Blutzen piped up.

“It’s your antics that get the women suspicious of us when we’re out patrolling at night!” Kohel objected loudly and tossed his morning roll at the womanizer, who ducked and had the pastry hit Breirecht’s tired and drooping gray face. The older knight picked up the flung food and dunked it into his tea without hesitating.

“And your antics have cost me like, three dates, Weimar!” Mullenkedheim added in, and Weimar waved a hand at him.

“Yeah right! It’s that moody countenance and the fact that you only ever think about food!” He argued, and Mullenkedheim had already started digging in to his breakfast.

“He’s a growing boy, Weimar,” Dojebon grinned over his mug of coffee, tacitly staying out of the way of flying food.

“You know what—Cap! Captain!” Weimar whined and Steiner looked up from his work to glare at the idiot.

“What.”

“Tell me I’m right!”

“About what?”

“About the Alexandrian lasses!”

“What about them?”

“How they’re the prettiest!”

Steiner gaped, knit his brows, fought the urge to bellow at them all this early in the morning.

“I wouldn’t know, Weimar. I have no opinion,” He shook his head at this foolishness and went back to Beatrix’s mocking, perfect handwriting.

“Really, Cap? No one? No opinion on any woman in the whole castle?!” Weimar asked in disbelief.

“There’s always the General, Cap,” Brierecht piped up and Steiner whipped his attention to the older knight.

“What?!”

“You’ve got to have an opinion on her, at least,” The old knight teased with a glance to his paperwork and Steiner scoffed in recoil.

Oh, the opinions he had on her. Not really on her appearance, though.

“I stand by what I said six years ago. She can turn my head when that slip of a girl grows into her knees. Now eat your breakfast and meet me out on the field in fifteen minutes!” He ordered, grabbing up his papers and fleeing with his coffee.

*

She had, by that point, grown into her knees. He would not admit that to anyone, however. Least of all himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be honest, in my head, whether he likes it or not, Beatrix would end up being Steiner’s ‘work wife’. That fellow employee you see more than your own spouse? Yeah. I doubt Beatrix would be thrilled about it either, pre-game. 
> 
> Also! I like kinda building this high-middle ages mirror for FF9, obviously some things wouldn’t be as much the same cause Alexandria is a matriarchy with an all female army. And while I can see Beatrix always putting off marriage for her career and ambitions, I can also see her almost going for it to get people off her back. Like many powerful women through history have done. 
> 
> As far as Steiner...well. I try to keep him in character for FF9 and thus the ‘Major Payne’ like line he gives Beatrix at the ball. I wouldn’t imagine Steiner has any experience with women, really. They get in the way of his duties!!


	25. Homecomings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beatrix is rebuilding her home when the party catches her off guard and Zidane tells her the princess is missing—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit more in depth of ‘Reunited along the Raza’, as I think my writing has gotten a bit less rusty (buhdumtsssss) with time and 50,000 words later.

“ _Steiner and I gave our all to protect Alexandria...but it was in vain.” Beatrix, when Zidane is looking for Dagger._

Alexandria was still in rubble by the time summer was upon her. Her Queen was off galavanting after the warmonger who killed her mother and destroyed her home, and her Captain was...away from her. The castle was far too quiet these days. Even the racket of repair couldn’t cover over the quietude that settled in her spirit. The knights of Pluto did their best but...they were not Steiner.

Beatrix even had a nascent thought that Garnet might never return. What would happen then? Who would the throne be passed to? These were things Beatrix had to consider. And she did not like them. She also did not like some of the whispers that she would be a good replacement for Garnet, either. That idea made her almost sick, especially after her misdeeds this year alone. 

Tantalus had also taken up residence in Alexandria, helping Ruby to repair her theater and aiding the townsfolk. Honestly, they had been a boon to the community, and Beatrix was flabbergasted by how much she owed Blank and Marcus.

So when she caught sight of Baku loitering around the castle, she was intrigued. She had never spoken to him, and it would be good to foster relations with the nascent king of thieves.

She patrolled around the docks one sunny morning until she found him also looking for her.

“You are Baku, yes?” She asked when she stepped onto the bridge he was on overlooking the harbor.

“Yeah! I’m the man what kidnapped your princess!” He guffawed with pride, his eyes hidden by airship goggles, but his smile was wide and generous.

“That is in the past. It happened what might as well be a lifetime ago,” She tossed her hair over her shoulder and Baku laughed a boisterous sound that reminded her of Adelbert on a good day.

And how much she missed him.

“You got a big heart, not like that knucklehead, Steiner,” He said, and Beatrix huffed at the irony of him taking about the Captain. Beatrix shrugged; she was not about to go into detail about her comrade to anyone, really. Steiner was her ‘knucklehead’, and Baku did not know him like she did.

“Hey boss, I think you saw—” That monkey-boy Zidane came barreling up the steps, stopping just before tackling into her.

“Beatrix!!”

*

Garnet was back in Alexandria?!

“I was hoping she would not see her city in such a state. She has already been through too much,” Beatrix mused as she looked over the Raza.

“I know. It’s just...I don’t know where else to look. I thought she would be here...” Zidane bemoaned, and Beatrix knit her brows in thought.

“Have you looked in the Queen’s resting place?” Beatrix asked, and the boy pressed his fingers to his chin in confusion. She shook her head and stepped toward the thief.

“If she is here, she will be with her mother. If you see her, I need you to do something for me,” Beatrix began, and Zidane nodded in all seriousness, his green eyes focused on her.

“Tell her that she needn’t worry about Alexandria,” She began, and pressed a dark red jewel into Zidane’s hand. “And give her this. Perhaps it will give her some solace in these dark times.”

Zidane looked down to the jewel in wonder, smirking like it was treasure, and Beatrix blinked at him. He slid the gem into his pocket and nodded with decision.

“I’ll get it to her. Oh,” Zidane piped up like there was something he forgot to mention.

“You’re okay! I mean, obviously. Steiner’s been worried about you! Like...a lot. Why haven’t you contacted him?” He asked, shrugging in his naïveté.

Beatrix shook her head. This was no time to discuss the complications of contacting them half a world away. How would she have? The Moogle network was still down, they had no airship and no radio. She had little time and neither of them could afford the distraction. Any more than they already were. They both had duties...obligations...things outside of whatever was happening between them.

And she was not going to explain her private innermost thoughts to an insipid boy of sixteen.

“The Queen’s grave is across the water on the other side of the courtyard. Tell Garnet I wish her well. And remember my words,” Beatrix bade and Zidane scratched the back of his neck.

“Okay. And...about Rusty? He should be here in a little while with the rest of em, so...bye!” Zidane called back with a wide smile, and he ran toward the rear of the castle.

Beatrix glanced at Baku just as the Tantalus leader started laughing and slapping his leg in mirth.

“This oughta be good!” He cackled and took the gondola to the other side of the river.

Zidane’s companions followed close after, as well as her Captain.

*

As she sat with him on the dock, her side was pressed against his as he told her about their insane adventures so far. He was lively and animated, energetic and excitable, and it was like she was drinking in sunlight for the first time in a week.

He brought her a small wooden cube that had detailed maps carved onto the surface of places she had never seen, about the size of her hand. She smiled at the ancient woodwork and the fact that he remembered she liked maps. She traced the carvings with her fingernails as they stole what time together they could.

“What brought this on?” She asked, thinking they should both probably be chaperoning whatever the thief-boy and the princess were up to—but instead basking in the warmth of early summer side-by-side.

“When I think about it, I know a great deal about you, Beatrix. And I missed you,” He admitted shyly and she melted into her own boots at the sound of his voice. At the faint splash of red across his cheeks. But she had known him too long not to poke fun of him.

“And what am I allergic to, then?” She asked playfully, her fingers dancing over the cube, memorizing its grooves and chips. Steiner made a thoughtful face, knitting his brows and glaring out over the water.

“Strawberries. Wool. Idiocy.” He answered, triumph in his voice, and she laughed for the first time since the attack.

*

She kissed him before he left; and she mused that he should have tasted like wool. Something that got under her skin and inflamed every inch of flesh he touched, something that stayed and burned with her long after she had contacted it.

And he did; but it wasn’t like wool at all. He tasted like metal (probably from the armor) and thunder (from the boom in his voice that soaked into her bones) and heat (she didn’t know when she became so cold all the time) and life (she didn’t know when her world became so quiet) and home (she didn’t know how to process any of it).

That was new for him; she could tell by the clumsy way he responded and the dazed look when she finally let him go (and she knew him too well, it seemed).

He’d embraced her; ever a chaste knight he was, and the echo of his stifled plate mail rung in her ears for hours after the Hilda Garde III took to flight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can’t stop


	26. Return to Alexandria

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our outlaws make it to Alexandria from Treno, and hide out in Ruby’s theater for the time being—while they gather intelligence. 
> 
> Or—
> 
> Steiner realizes that coming home has its challenges, and Beatrix accidentally lets her guard down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This and the last chapter grew from each other and became one shots on their own. 
> 
> Also, so sorry to FFIX fandom (yes to all 5 of us) I feel like I’m here a lot lately

Alexandria Town was small compared even to Treno. When they (Freya, Beatrix, Blank, Marcus, and himself) managed to steal away into the docks by way of the lake, it was difficult to keep a low profile. 

Steiner had forgotten that literally everyone in Alexandria and their mother knew him.

They had barely made it across the water in the dead of night when old man McHarris’s son piped out beside his lamplight.

“Is that you, Captain?!” The young fisherman called, and Blank and Marcus shared a look—Freya had hand on a sap, Beatrix glared into the dark.

“Indeed...” Steiner hissed as he was caught, and the man brought up his lantern to see Steiner fully.

“Out of uniform aren’t you?” The young man looked confused, and Steiner hushed him to keep his voice down.

“Even Knights have days off. Aren’t you to be to bed?” Steiner asked desperately, and younger McHarris pointed to the lake.

“Some only bite at night!” He replied, and Steiner waved the boy to his boat and nets.

“Then be at it and pay us no heed! Go, now!”

“Okay, Pluto Captain,” Young McHarris shrugged, picking up his tackle box and going off to fish at this god-forsaken hour.

Steiner sighed, the thieves whispered, and Freya nodded her approval. Beatrix flipped her hair over her shoulder and followed after the thieves.

*

“This is probably why Lindblum would have been a better option,” Marcus mused as they traversed the back alleys of their town. He and Blank sidestepped with Freya as they heard marching ahead.

“Lindblum isn’t out of the cards yet,” Beatrix reminded; she yanked Steiner by his collar behind a stack of crates as the squad of soldiers patrolled by. He huffed an impatient thanks and she patted his chest off-handedly in response. He was a wall of a man, dear gods.

A warm and muscled wall. She promptly pushed him out into the alleyway and he caved like a cheap tunic under her fingers.

“Hey! What was that for?!”

She shook her head quickly, clasped her elbow with her wayward hand and followed a chuckling Marcus.

*

“Well I’ll be! Harboring fugitives! Just what kind of Business do you two think I’m runnin’?!” Ruby huffed, placing her hands on her hips as Blank partially hid behind Marcus.

“Yeah, I know, Ruby. But until we can get to Lindblum and back to base, we gotta lay low. Alexandria has our best way to get there,” The tattooed thief explained, and Steiner nodded enthusiastically.

“I’m not anxious to retrace the route Zidane and our party took,” The knight agreed and Freya smirked at him.

“No ice caverns? No barrels full of black Mages?” She asked in tease, and Steiner shook his head fighting a growing smirk.

“Y’all are gonna have to stay in the back. Away from my crowds and soldiers,” Ruby acquiesced, crossing her arms over her frilly bodice and glaring at Blank.

“But I’m havin’ a talk with you two! C’mere!” She curled her finger at Blank and Marcus, pulling them off to the side. She paused, turned to the three wayward knights, and pointed to the back of the stage.

“Y’all can go on ahead and set yourselves back there,” She said congenially and with a bright smile. “Unless handsome here would like to help me set up my tables for tonight?” Ruby grinned up at Steiner, and his eyes lit up with excitement. A task to accomplish!

“Handsome?” Marcus scoffed and Steiner tacitly ignored him.

“Of course my lady! In repayment for your assistance!” He saluted with a smile and Beatrix coughed to hide a laugh, but he knew that sound of hers! Freya hid her smirk under a hand.

“My lady?” Blank scoffed, and Ruby whirled around on him.

“Yeah! That’s right! At least SOMEONE around here knows how to treat me proper-like!” She said scathingly with her hands once more on her curvaceous hips. Ruby turned back to Steiner with a sugar-sweet smile, and out of the corner of his eye, Beatrix was no longer smirking.

“I like a can-do attitude! Who-boy but what I can finally get done around here now that I’ve got a MAN to help me out!” Ruby whipped around to half-shout at the pair of Tantalus, who flinched and grimaced at her.

“And two women. Easily worth more than all three boys in the room,” Freya cut in with a challenging grin. Beatrix finally smirked at that and nodded.

Ruby’s eyes brightened and she clapped while bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Alright! Ya’ll definitely made this worth my while! Okay ladies! Let’s show these boys up,” She encouraged, but tapped Steiner on the arm. “Except you, mister man, you keep where I can get you to reach things for me,” Ruby once again whirled around like a twister to to yell at her two friends.

Steiner kept his salute and smiled at being found useful; idleness was not in his nature.

“Yes, Captain. Keep where she can reach you,” Beatrix murmured under her breath at him, with a half smile and a mischievous look, walking past him to where Ruby ushered them off to. Freya raised both brows as the General went by, looked at Steiner, and flicked her ears with a shudder.

“It get a little colder in here?” She asked with mirth, and Steiner had no idea what she was talking about. Ruby continued to yell at the pair of thieves (mostly Blank) for events Steiner had no concept of.

*

“Apparently there’s little word of our desertion,” Steiner said and set his coat on the chair beside the bed. Beatrix continued to brush her damp hair, facing away from him with her bandana resting on her lap. She hummed in response.

“Not among the guards anyway. According to the tailors and the blacksmith, the knights of Pluto are ‘being reassigned’,” He said with emphasis, and she could imagine his hand gesture at the statement.

“It would be devastating for morale, no doubt. With Brahne so close to total victory, she can’t be seen as having her two highest-ranking knights commit treason,” Beatrix mused, running her fingers through her mane and pulling out bundles of chestnut hair from the brush. A singular, perfect white hair mingled with her bronze, and Beatrix balled up the bunch and tossed it in the bin.

Ruby had graciously lent her the brush and the room for the pair of them, and while it was by no means grandiose, Beatrix ceded that she liked it better than the hovel in Treno. This room alone was as large as the shack back at the Dark city, and while she and Steiner were still sharing a bunk, it was twice the size of the previous bed. (Still twice as awkward as sharing a bed with anyone she ever had before. But of the option of Freya or Adelbert, well.)

The room smelled of old wood and old costumes, that library of antiques scent that lingered in every inch. The bed was not often used and probably as old as the costumes that littered the sides of the room. Several mismatched and decorated mirrors hung up, prop swords and masks stuck out of stacked boxes. She hadn’t seen where Freya and the others had went.

“Then I wonder how well Catherine is filling in your shoes,” Steiner commented, and Beatrix gave an honest shrug.

“She is at the helm of the largest military operation Alexandria has ever seen, I’m sure she’s thrilled,” Beatrix looked up at a mirror hung just right to see Steiner nod and give the same noncommittal shrug.

“Maia was always smarter than—” He began, met her eye in the mirror, and his features froze.

Her breath left her lungs like she’d been struck.

She immediately dropped her head and raked her hair down, sending waves of her mane over the one side of her face. Steiner shuffled behind her.

“Wait, I’m sorry,” His hand landed gently on her shoulder and she tensed from forehead to foot.

“Don’t,” She ordered, pressing her hair into the ugly, ragged scar that marred her face.

“I didn’t realize! I didn’t think about it, I’m sorry,” His repetition annoyed her.

“It’s fine.” She breathed, and no it wasn’t fine but it was done and she pulled up the bandana to cover the old wound again—

“Is that even comfortable to sleep in?” He asked and she scoffed at such a dumb question.

“It doesn’t matter, now does it? I’ve slept in it before,” She growled. She’d slept with one for two years after the event.

“No, that’s. Stop. Beatrix,” Steiner sputtered, his hand leaving her shoulder cold. “I’ll just keep my eyes closed. I’ll face this way,” She looked up to see him do just that—close his eyes and awkwardly turn away, tucking his arms into himself.

She wished he had walked in on her naked. It would have been less humiliating.

Silence hung for several moments. She slowly set the bandana back down on her lap in thought.

“It looks better than I remember,” Steiner remarked softly, and Beatrix huffed in indignation, grabbing a prop sword and swinging blindly behind her to hit him with it. It struck with a soft ‘pap!’ and Steiner shifted in his shoes.

“I’m sorry, you’re right,” He agreed...to whatever just happened, and Beatrix put the prop back. It would break on him if she swung too hard anyway.

Her fingers went up to the gouged flesh that ran from the middle of her forehead, down her eye and curved just above her high cheekbone. She never knew what did it, what blow found her. She looked back up to the mirror, and the scar was deep, ragged, and dark pink. Her eye was pale and useless—she still caught pinpricks of light with it sometimes, but useless all the same.

“The last time you saw it I was covered in blood with my eye falling out of my skull, of course it looks better,” Beatrix said more defensively than she felt proper, and clenched her teeth in frustration.

“That is...true.”

“I’m sorry...that came out harsh.”

“I...understand. I’ll try to...keep my eyes away,” He murmured, and Beatrix shook her head to herself.

“It’s fine. I suppose it’s a silly thing to be ashamed of,” She sighed and traced the embroidery on the blue bandana.

“It is a very silly thing, indeed. Even more so for you,” Steiner agreed and Beatrix scrunched her nose at his insensitivity. She should have expected no less! She was being vulnerable and he was taking advantage of it—!

“You’re a striking woman, General. A small scar doesn’t change that. Only that your bravery matches your allure,” He continued without pause, and her gaze dropped to her fingers.

Damn him. He just—damn him! Her chest and face both blazed with heat and she breathed deeply to dispel the blooming blush.

“Thank you, Captain,” She said breathlessly through her teeth, running her fingers along the ‘small’ scar Steiner spoke of. “I’ve never let anyone see it...”

“Then I doubly apologize for the violation,” He conceded. Her heart pounded.

Just...damn him. She curled her fingers into the waves of her hair absently, leveling out her breath as she focused on individual strands.

“Beatrix?”

“Yes, Adelbert?”

“Can you scoot over, I’m walking backwards and I really don’t want to trip over you and add injury to insult,”

She chuckled to herself and did as he asked, making room for him to shuffle onto the bed and lie down, fully clothed as always, with his eyes firmly closed. She smiled at his consideration, and got up to pull the offending mirror off the wall, setting it on the floor.

“I’m still closing my eyes,”

“And how do you know what I’m doing, Steiner?” She asked in amusement before settling down on her side of the bed. His heat touched her like he was a hands breadth away.

“Intuition.”

“Good Night, Adelbert.” She couldn’t keep the smile out of her voice as she extinguished the lamps. Perhaps it was not such a large blemish...at least to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Send help


	27. Dual-Edged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Garnet ascends to the throne (almost), and everyone tries to go back to normal. 
> 
> But things have changed—and our knights come to terms with that (almost).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wanted to do a ‘okay let’s get back to normal!’ Piece, and hope it didn’t come out too bad. 
> 
> It’s hard to do the pacing of this without going too far off the rails. Bea and Rusty (at least in canon) don’t realize their feelings until after Alexandria is wrecked, and then don’t do anything about it until the epilogue. So I’m trying to balance what I’ve fleshed out with what the in-game context is. 
> 
> Steiner’s character arc flows through the whole game, and is only resolved when he asks Bea to stay. And then there’s his realizations with Tantalus, that don’t change until Dagger goes missing (hair cutting scene). It’s agonizing, but I hope I do this incredible slow burn justice.

‘ _But to gain everything only by losing you! What fate! A foul, double-edged blade!’ -Act II, Scene iii, ‘I want to be your Canary’._

Ruby’s Theater had been organized, the items inventoried, dusted, cleaned, and re-organized by his first week. Ruby was elated, and had even recommended Steiner take a day off and do reconnaissance.

Steiner knew he was no good at intel. Everyone in town knew his face. Beatrix and Freya on the other hand were just two people. Freya for being a Burmecian and Beatrix, out of uniform, was a stunning if unextraordinary Alexandrian to the common man. They were much better at talking to people and not getting noticed.

Blank and Marcus ascertained the funds to travel. Steiner bit his tongue and didn’t ask how. He doubted he would like the answer.

He was waxing the floors of the theater instead, rigidly going over every inch of hardwood he could. It kept his mind and his hands busy, and even Beatrix had trouble pulling him up from the task.

“I can’t just stop until it’s finished!” He grumbled and rubbed at a particularly dry spot. Beatrix sighed, crossed a leg over the other and leaned on her lap as she and Freya sat at one of Ruby’s tables.

“This floor is as old as I am, Adelbert. You’ve been at this for twelve hours, already,” She commented and Freya flicked an ear.

“Has he?” The dragon knight asked, and Beatrix nodded to her.

“Up since dawn. Still there,” She gestured to him out of the corner of his eye. He huffed and moved on to the next square foot. His pants were smeared and stained with the floor wax, hardened by resin, and his tunic had dust and dirt wiped all down the front. He was sure he touched his forehead and hair at one point. In short, he was sure he looked a mess.

“I can’t go out and about like the pair of you so I must occupy my hands somehow,” Steiner retorted and Beatrix shrugged, going back to her notes.

“So we’ve gathered that the princess was in Lindblum a few weeks ago, and Brahne took the Naval fleet beyond the veil of the mist. Somewhere west,” Beatrix said, looking over a map of the Mist Continent. Freya hummed, nodded, and pointed off the side of the map.

“There is a continent here,” Her clawed finger tapped delicately on the wood beside the velum, “They call it the Outer Continent, but I’ve been having a hard time getting a map of it.”

“Most are antiques now. Our reliance on Mist for power made that continent hard to get to, though not impossible,” Beatrix mused.

“What could Brahne want out there?” Freya asked, tracing her chin with the nail of her thumb.

“King came from beyond the mist,” Beatrix offered. Freya grimaced and looked down at their incomplete picture of their own world.

“Indeed...but then why would she bring her navy?”

“Brahne is heading for a battle,” Beatrix answered, leaning back in her chair. “She wouldn’t take her military with her black Mages so far out of reach if she wasn’t aching for a fight. She could see King as her last threat, thinking to use Garnet’s eidolons against him.”

“Tie up loose ends?” Freya countered, and Beatrix nodded solemnly.

“Then where did Dagger and Zidane go after Lindblum?” The Burmecian asked, shaking her head and looking puzzled at the map.

“That’s the question of the century,” Steiner interrupted, moving to his next square foot of unwaxed flooring. “Regent Cid is a wise man, he no doubt has some inclination,” He continued to buff the aging wood diligently.

Beatrix hummed and looked over some paperwork that the Tantalus boys had gotten for them.

“Regent Cid will know. But how to get to occupied Lindblum from the seat of the burgeoning empire that is clamoring for our heads is a bigger question,” The General said with some reservation. Freya glanced down to the map below with a sigh.

“How to get into occupied Lindblum at all. Steiner said the only way was on foot,” Freya added, gesturing to him.

“The airship gate is in repair. Brahne would have had to go around to launch her Eidolon attack, courtesy of the third Black Waltz,” He agreed and Beatrix sighed slowly through her nose. Pursed her lips in concentration. Critically examining the map and working out some strategy in her head.

He really should stop staring. Beatrix didn’t have all the answers to what was rattling in his head, so he took to the floor again.

“Lindblum is a death trap and the princess is possibly half a world away. We’ll need to commandeer an airship,” Beatrix said decidedly and Freya piqued up at that.

“Pirate an airship of the Lindblum supply line,”

“And then from Lindblum, where?” Steiner grunted as he scrubbed into the grain, a bead of sweat trailing down his temple and the fumes of lacquer and wax burning his eyes.

“You said it yourself, Regent Cid will know,” Beatrix offered with a wry grin and Steiner gave a tired smirk.

Marcus burst through the doors, huffing and heaving like a daemon was on his tail. Steiner sprang up and wielded the bucket of wax like a weapon, sloshing the contents all over himself, the floor, and a startled Beatrix.

“The airships are here!” Marcus puffed, hands on his knees. Just as all three knights gave a cry of surprise, Blank came barreling in, slamming into Marcus and skidding on Steiner’s freshly waxed floor.

“What airships?” Beatrix asked, wiping the spilt wax off of her arm and smearing it on the back of Steiner’s tunic. He frowned down at her hand but kept rapt to the bundle of thieves sticking to the floor.

“The big red Alexandrian one and a Lindblumese one! Looked like Cid’s personal airship!” Blank answered and peeled himself off of Marcus who was grumbling about the tackiness.

“Gross, bro...yeah, yeah. The Hilda Garde II. Been in dock for forever,” The tatted thief filled in unenthusiastically.

Steiner and Beatrix looked at each other at the same time.

“What in tarnation?! Blank! You messin’ up Rusty’s floor?!” Ruby came in from the back, a tray of five lemonades on her hip, glaring at Blank like he was the sole perpetrator of any mess that ever happened in her theater.

“My apologies, Miss Ruby!” Steiner saluted, and Beatrix rushed out the door followed closely by Freya, “I shall have to complete this another day!” He finished, turning on his heel and hustling after his comrades.

“BLANK! Look what you did!” Ruby shouted behind him and the thief stuttered over a response.

*

A crowd jeered near the Raza, cheering and calling as the airships landed at the mighty citadel that was Alexandria Castle. Her sword gleamed in the sunlight, casting powerful rays across the country side like it was cutting through the mist. The Red Rose lighted like a cloud, and the Hilda Garde II dominated the skyline, imperfect as it was.

Steiner acted as a vanguard for Beatrix and Freya, spearheading his way through the throng to get a good look at a precession quickly making its way across the water. A group of heralds of the court stepped off the gondola, and a troupe of Alexandrian knights kept the crowds back. Beatrix tugged on his sleeve to pull him back, but his eyes met a familiar figure.

Minister Artania stood in front of the people, a paper scroll clasped in his hand.

“What is he doing here, Steiner?” Freya asked over his shoulder, and the knight shook his head in confusion. Beatrix’s fingers dug into his forearm. Grounded him. Whether she knew it or not.

“People of Alexandria! I am here with news of your Queen!” Minister Artania began, the scroll a prop in his hand that he didn’t open. The crowd grew still, and a burst of static broke out in Steiner’s stomach.

“Cid Fabool IX, Regent of Lindblum, formally recognizes the ascension of your new Queen,” He announced in all solemn respectfulness, and Beatrix’s grip on him tightened to the point of pain but he didn’t flinch—

“Garnet Til Alexandros XVII!!” He let the paper drop open with a flair, and on it were the signatures of Regent Cid, Artania, heads of state, and the princess’s own script.

The crowd burst into questions, outcries, some were even weeping while others celebrated, and the hand on his forearm vanished. Steiner turned to watch her bronze mane disappear into the manic and melancholic throng.

*

“We need to figure out what happened,” Beatrix urged, gathering her things and thrusting his helmet into his hands when they got back to Ruby’s theater.

“Indeed! Ah...indeed,” Steiner looked down to his helm and his reflection in the aged metal. He heard a sword release from its scabbard, and glanced up to see Beatrix looking at herself in the face of Save The Queen, barely pulled from its sheath.

Her gaze seemed distant. They should be elated! Ecstatic! They could go home, truly home!

Why did it feel so...gah, but he lacked the vocabulary! Empty? Strange?

“What happened to Brahne...” Steiner mused, jumping off her earlier statement. Beatrix nodded and slammed the sword back into its place.

“And what the princess has been up to,” She added, marching from the room without a glance to him.

He did not miss the General of Alexandria. She slipped back into the role like nothing had happened. His grip on his helm tightened, and he huffed at the strange feeling it left with him.

Steiner slapped on his helmet and gathered up his remaining armor. It was heavier than it was before, not as comfortable as it had been. It rubbed in places he didn’t recognize and his helmet creaked and scratched on his scalp when he snapped it on.

He was never comfortable in his bare skin; so why did this give little comfort to him now? The armor smelled like old metal—rust. The room held the odor of the props and dusty antiques. The pillow clung to the scent of roses and whatever it was that made her linger everywhere she went.

A tickle wriggled it’s way up his jaw when he finished putting on his breastplate. He scratched at the offending area, thinking it was his chainmail. Something else about his armor that now annoyed him. Steiner reached up a hand and caught a thin strand of...

He curled a monofilament piece of bronze around his bare finger, pulling it gently from the tangle of chain mail it threaded into. It seemed like it was three feet long by the time the end freed itself from his chain hood, and Steiner blinked in confusion at the piece of hair.

He smiled bitterly, dusting the hair off his finger into the bin.

*

Garnet beamed when she saw him. Her eyes were watery and deep with hurt, but she smiled at him all the same.

“I thought I’d never see you again, Steiner,” She admitted softly. Steiner thought she seemed so much more than the young lady that snuck them through the South Gate, and he saluted with a crunch of mail that echoed in her bedroom.

“I would never leave you, your highness,” He assured, and she reached up to pat the front of his plate affectionately. Garnet turned to Beatrix, back in her general’s garb and her hair curled the way it had always been before, and the princess rushed up to embrace her.

Steiner promised himself he wouldn’t cry. Instead he just sniffled and Beatrix glared at him incredulously over the shoulder of the princess.

“Oh, I have so much to tell you. So much to do! Mother—” Garnet clasped her head and Beatrix set her hands in the girl’s shoulders.

“The specifics can wait. We all have much to do, but for the moment, you’ve just returned,” The General advised and Steiner nodded surely. Garnet gave a single nod, and gripped the pendant beneath her rib cage with a kind of solemn reverence.

Oh, the things they had to do. Beatrix had to restructure her army, release the occupation of Lindblum, start a supply train to Burmecia for reparations (Garnet was very insistent), organize her troupe, and help plan for after the coronation.

Steiner had to...organize his nine knights and protect the castle.

...

No, he would aid Beatrix as well. They had grown into an easy camaraderie through Alexandria and Treno, and he was not anxious to just go back to the way things were. His Queen and General needed him to step up and—

“Steiner. Are you listening to me?” Beatrix’s voice broke into his thoughts and he shook himself from his reverie. Garnet smiled softly at him and shook her head.

“I think he was far away, Beatrix,” The princess jested and her General didn’t even blink. His heart sank into his feet at the lack of emotion that went through her solid brown eye.

“Very well. I’ll repeat myself. Out. The princess needs her sleep,” Beatrix pointed to the door. Garnet walked up to him, placed a hand on his bare bicep and gave a small squeeze.

“I’ll be here when you check on me in the morning, Steiner,” She promised and Steiner shook his head in confusion.

“No, that’s not,” He began, but sighed in defeat. He saluted again. “Yes, your highness,” He mumbled, turned about and left. If Garnet noticed anything amiss, she didn’t show it.

*

His knights were alive!

Having just been freed from their prisons, they each looked worse for wear, but happy to see him all the same. They crowded into the barrack beneath the Queen’s Balcony, laughing and embracing and celebrating their freedom. Breirecht was still healthy and in good spirits; and for that, Steiner was incredibly thankful.

“Maia made sure to imprison us humanely. Apparently she and the General had a bit of a falling out after Burmecia and Cleyra,” The old knight informed him, and he made note to thank the Colonel for her mercy.

“Apparently the whole General’s Squad broke up after she turned sides. Maia and Zephyr are the only two still alive. The rest...” Breirecht scratched the back of his neck, “The rest went down with Brahne.”

Steiner nodded solemnly.

“I still don’t know all the particulars either,” Steiner admitted. “Doctor Tot will be here shortly, and her highness will no doubt inform us of what happened.”

“Good to have you back, Cap,” Breirecht slapped him on the shoulder, the gray around his face more prominent than Steiner had noticed before, and he went back to the celebrating Pluto Knights. Steiner smiled; ignored the burning in his eyes.

“Alright you fools! I want you Coronation ready in an hour!” Steiner bellowed at them, and they scurried the most happy chaotic scurry he had seen of them.

*

Steiner did go back to Ruby’s Theater to finish her flooring, true to his word. Even though Baku and his unruly crew were out and about, so he took no longer than necessary. She was delighted to have him, even so, inviting he and Freya to her next grand play.

“I’m afraid I’ll be caught up in my duties, Miss Ruby,” He said with regret, and she nodded in understanding, at least.

“I feel like we’ve talked about you and your duty-problems, Rusty,” Marcus piped up, and Blank grinned. Steiner felt his very blood pressure raise in response.

“And what would you know? Galavanting about at the wind’s direction?!” Steiner spun on the two, and Marcus shook his head.

“Just gonna snap right back into it, eh? Like nothing happened?” Marcus asked, calm and cool, and Steiner thought of Beatrix averting every gaze from him since Garnet’s return.

He didn’t want things like they were...but what did Marcus know?! Steiner swore his life to Alexandria—what he wanted didn’t matter unless her highness wished it!

“And what are you alluding to changed, thief? I am still a knight, honor bound to my liege. I wouldn’t expect you to understand that,” Steiner pointed at the pair of them, and Blank pressed a hand against his chest in mock offense.

“That’s right, cause we’re honorless dogs, right, Captain?” Marcus’s face was empty, his eyes covered as always, and Steiner gaped a moment at the thought.

Honorless...dogs? Was that what he thought of them? Certainly when they kidnapped the princess...but now?

“I must take my leave.” Steiner replied, saluting Ruby, glaring at Marcus—who looked a little too smug for Steiner’s liking, and the knight left.

“I’ll tell Zidane you said hey!” Marcus called behind him as he went.

*

Beatrix had far too much to get done. And the first of all things was figuring out what happened in her absence.

The princess called for Doctor Tot, who arrived swiftly. She talked with him for hours while the castle adjusted itself in the wake of the Queen’s demise. The castle staff—nay, the entire kingdom loved Brahne, villain though she became. They didn’t know that side of her, only that she brought them prosperity.

Beatrix worried over her now very young monarch.

When Garnet was ready to speak with herself and the Captain, she told them...everything. What happened after Alexandria, the devastation to Lindblum, the Outer Continent and its mysteries and trees of mist. The death of her mother. Her last words.

When the princess went to retire—she had a big week ahead of her—Doctor Tot filled in the blanks of the summoners. And who Garnet truly was.

“She wasn’t the Queen’s daughter,” Beatrix breathed, bewildered. She glanced over at Steiner, who glared at the stones with a deeper frown than she had ever seen on him. Doctor Tot paced the library floor thoughtfully.

“Indeed. I was sworn to secrecy, after all,” The scholar said, and Steiner huffed.

“I remember something odd happening at the castle around that time. I was only a foot soldier, though. My captains told me to ignore any whisperings I might have heard. That the princess...Brahne’s daughter, died, was one I remember well,” He said, crossing his arms.

Beatrix shook her head with a small sigh.

“It matters not. Garnet is Queen. And there are none to contest the throne. If I have not heard of this before, no one else has outside this castle either,” She said plainly, and Steiner nodded decisively.

“Ah. A knights oath is a powerful thing, to be sure,” Doctor Tot said with pride.

The conversation continued of more frivolous things, like coronation ceremonies and guest lists and protocol.

Beatrix fought to fall back into place, as she should, but it felt stilted, forced. She felt like Steiner noticed, but he didn’t say anything.

*

Maia and Zephyr were the only two of Squad Beatrix left alive. And truthfully, Beatrix didn’t know what to do with them. They took their orders, did their duties, and went about their business with a salute and nothing more.

Beatrix was never very close to her women, and that was never more noticeable than the week of the coronation. Beatrix was never very close to anyone, and she felt it now. In ways she never had before.

Oh, she could have gone on about the shame and regret she felt at her blind ambitions. She could scream and curse at the four walls all day and it would change nothing. Who would she tell these things to? Who didn’t hold her actions against her now? No one.

Garnet needed her General whole and sound, not torn and conflicted, so Beatrix was exactly what her princess needed her to be.

Whether she felt that way or not.

*

The Knights of Pluto were insufferable to be around. Not because she feared them or their opinions held any merit, but it was like because they had stood in her way before, they were puffing out their chests to her every chance they got.

And oh, Steiner was furious at them for it.

Not because of her, she knew. But at their lack of decorum, certainly. Haagen would make a smart remark at one of her orders and she would glare at him until he became a spineless twit, and later Steiner would bellow until he was blue in the face about rank and file and chains of command.

Beatrix could pretend he was defending her—until she snapped herself out of that daydream and reminded her wayward thoughts that she was still as friendless as ever.

Until—

“Adelbert, you don’t have to do that. I’m normally in charge of the carriages, I can do it this time, too,” Beatrix reminded him as they sat in the library, empty save them, a stack of papers as tall as he was between them. He had his helmet off, tossed carelessly with her gauntlets on a nearby chair as they were scribbling away and dividing the duties of the coronation as best they could.

“No, no, no. That could be part of the security detail, and honestly, Blutzen is magnificent with Chocobos so it works,” He argued, taking that paper and placing it in his (considerably smaller) pile of paperwork.

“I just—fine. Garnet wants us nearby when the ceremony takes place. Where does that leave patrols along the waterfront?” Beatrix asked, wanting to move on from this as quickly as possible.

“Haagen and Weimar. Haagen knows all the best infiltration points and Weimar’s company is unbearable, so no one will want to meander the grounds,” Steiner held up that paper and slapped it into his pile without looking up, and crossed it off the shared list between them.

“Alright what about—” He began, but she grabbed the stack and started flicking through.

“Why don’t we do this like we always do this, and I handle the inside while you handle the outside?” Beatrix offered, a quick and painless solution—what they had always done before. They would be out of each other’s way and nothing had to change—

Steiner shook his head.

“No, because most of it is inside the castle, and I can help you to sort out the worst of it,” Steiner countered, placing his hand on the fan of papers in hers and laying them out between them. Beatrix took a deep breath and closed her eye.

“Steiner you don’t have to—”

“For once,” He interrupted, and she glared up at him but was met with a sincere and a open expression, “Just let me help you, woman.”

She paused. That was, indeed, a big change.

“This will take Hours to go over. Are you sure you can sit here doing something mindless with me, for hours?” She asked, letting go of the paperwork that he pulled to lay out fully between them.

“Yes. Now then. Kitchens,” Steiner pointed to the offending chore and she gave a dry chuckle. He didn’t even blink.

Perhaps not so friendless as she thought. She didn’t know how to feel about that, so she promised herself she would process it later.

*

Later came, and she kept pushing it off and pushing it off; whatever it was that made her forget the reasons why she despised him. Every time she tried to go back to before Brahne, before Burmecia, he would say something or do something and she came slamming back into the present, where lines were blurred and she had trouble adjusting.

For all that had changed, he was constant. Where once she was sure and implacable, she was now wrought with grief and loathing and sorrow—he was ever present and ever the same; if not more forgiving of her. If Steiner ever had any doubts, she never would have guessed it.

*

And he had doubts. Dilemmas born of quandaries he kept telling himself he shouldn’t have had. That he had no right to have. These were the things that kept him up at night and awake in his too old bunk, in his too small room in the corner of the castle that smelled like rotten wood and crumbling rust.

Tantalus were thieves. But Baku was resourceful and fatherly to his crew. Blank was valorous, fearless! Marcus was dedicated, staunchly so. Ruby was kind hearted and light. Cinna was jovial and carefree, of what Steiner saw of him. Zidane...Zidane was like a combination of all of them.

He had never met a boy so brazenly himself. Independent and sure. Flirtatious and annoying.

Baku questioned every motive Steiner made for himself. ‘No right? You need a right to think for yourself?’ The king of thieves once mocked him. How can a person be so seemingly dishonorable and yet ethical and principled in all their dealings?

He told himself it was above him so he wouldn’t have to ponder it. Steiner thought himself cowardly for hiding behind his excuses.

Beatrix was, on paper, honorable. She held decorum to a fault, treated her superiors with respect and her enemies with no mercy. Her peers were held in high regard, or would be, if she had any. And yet—the shadow of Burmecia haunted her. She was a General, a knight, a warrior. Battle was what she did—they did not become knights to run away from violence, and yet...Beatrix’s arrogance created a space of solitude that she lived in now. Her pride alienated her from those that should have admired her.

Brahne’s actions were awful, but nothing worse done than anything on the Mist Continent before. Burmecians killed her father, slaughtered Steiner’s family three decades back. Brahne was seen as a hero to her people for striking before being struck. Yet she turned like a snake on the girl she saw as blood and betrayed every oath ever made to her.

How did he reconcile these things...? He didn’t know.

He thought of Treno. When his face was scratchy and Beatrix wore that blue bandana, and stripped of everything, what did he become? What did she? Robbed of station, motive, duty, and fealty, what was he?

What do you want, Sir Knight?

There were nights when her hair would tangle around him. When her scent lingered for days after she left him...That line of thought normally got him to put out the lamp and go to sleep.

But he dreamed, and when he dreamed...he knew the answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Totally made up that Lord Avon line, btw. Who lets me keep making chapters?
> 
> Shout out to Wolfsong who inspired me to bump this one up on my to-write list!


	28. Peace is but a shadow of death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coronation Week is marked by changes, which Steiner doesn’t completely take in stride. 
> 
> Or 
> 
> Steiner and Amarant, Eiko, and Garnet featuring anger management problems that definitely plague Rusty’s day-to-day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jumping off of Coronation week, and here we are! I have a few more chapters in the works for after this, but I can’t help but feel like this series is coming to a close soon. 
> 
> For everyone that still follows, we’re almost done! (Maybe.)

Early Summer, 1800,

Coronation Week

Steiner is not thrilled about the friends Zidane made. Or had. Or anyone that Zidane drug into his presence. Beatrix made a crack of “What does that say about you, Captain?” and he scoffed at the cadre of idiots that paraded around the castle these days.

Granted, that was one mercenary who Steiner was not fond of. Red Salamander was dismissive, rude, and dared puff out his chest at every rule Steiner informed him of!

“Keep off the grass, huh?” He remarked with a curl of his lip. His expression was always unreadable under his mop of disheveled, yarn-like hair.

“Indeed! Follow the walkways!” Steiner said with an excited hop.

“Pfft. Stuff yourself, tin man,” The mercenary scoffed, and Steiner went rigid in fury, shook in rage and sputtered as the sell sword when sauntering off like he owned the place. He made his way to the castle, almost brushing elbows with the General as she left the grand hall.

She stopped.

“Mind your manners within these halls. The Queen does not give you leave to be rude,” Beatrix said with decorum, ease, and surety. Steiner knew her tone well.

Amarant paused long enough to get a good look at her, and Beatrix turned on her heel to stare at his sizing up.

“Do you understand, mercenary?” She asked, a polite disinterest floating in her voice. The green-hued brigand huffed, saluted, and left.

“He will heed your orders, Captain,” Beatrix said as she turned and walked past him, and Steiner shook his head at the exchange.

“How can you be so sure?” He scoffed, following after her for...reasons.

“I’ve seen his kind. He butts against orders to seem more potent than he is. Stare his type down and they cower like dogs,” She explained with waving hand gesture, and Steiner smirked in confusion, but agreed all the same.

Amarant gave the General and her captain a wide berth the entire time he was in Alexandria, besides.

***

Steiner kept to his rounds around the main keep, like he always had, trying to get back into the swing of things. It was harder than he thought it would be, like he had come to a hard stop after everything that had happened this year.

After the dungeons, and fleeing, and Treno...now he was back to clanking around the castle yelling at the pastry chefs.

On his rounds, on the day of the Coronation rehearsal, a blood-cuddling shriek filled the air.

A call for help! Steiner clanked his way to the main foyer, the screaming floating in the air and constant.

“Get me down! Heeeellllp!” A small voice, like a child! Steiner ran down the overlooking hall, down the stairs, through the grand foyer—nothing!

It was like a phantom keening around the halls, and everywhere he looked, nothing! The kitchens to the right, empty! When he checked the halls to the left toward the library, it got quieter! He clanked back to the main hall, still nothing!

“Hey! HEY! UP HERE YOU BIG METAL IDIOT!” The voice hollered, and Steiner huffed indignantly as he did as she bade, looking up at the decorative banisters that lined the railing.

A child! Lavender haired and oddly dressed—tangled hair, old oversized boots, clothes too big for her and older than she appeared.

Steiner growled. One of the little Tantalus vagrants, no doubt! And getting her down would be a challenge. He scowled at the waif, and ran up the steps to a better position to grab her up and toss her out!

*

“Liar!” Steiner bellowed at her, as she wove a story of being a summoner, of being a friend of the Princess’s, of coming back with them to the castle.

“I’m not a liar! Your face is a liar! I wanna see Dagger! Put me down!” The waif screamed at him, wiggling in his grasp as he held her aloft by the scruff of her oversized shirt.

“Stop being a brat! I know you’re with those thieves or some other party, and you cannot be here in the castle! LAUDO!” Steiner called out to the library, knowing the writer couldn’t be too far away. When the young slip of a man jostled up and saluted in confused terror, Steiner thrust his finger at Laudo’s nose.

“Cretins are getting into the castle! Double the patrol routes!”

“Aw, but Cap!” The writer protested, and Steiner snarled at him—something that wasn’t quite words or orders, and Laudo redoubled the force of his salute.

“I’m not a cretin! You're SO MEAN!” The girl screeched, flailing about again.

“You’re a loudmouth, that’s what you are!”

“Aren’t knights supposed to be all kind and chivalrous?! This is dumb, let me go!” And her thrashing continued.

*

Eiko stuck her tongue out at him as she was allowed into the castle when Zidane and the troupe arrived.

“What did I tell you, tin man?!” She exclaimed, self-assured and smug, and he glared down at the summoner.

“I’ve heard wilder tales from assassins who would want to get close to royalty. You’re lucky your friends came when they did!” He looked at the group in passing, and Vivi stopped before entering the castle.

“But we’re friends too, Mister Steiner! So doesn’t that mean you and Eiko can be friends?” The mage asked, innocent and sure. Eiko huffed and crossed her arms.

“Never! He’s big and mean and ugly! I’m gonna go find Dagger!” She sped away, and Steiner frowned at her as she went.

“She is a guest, Master Vivi, at the behest of the Queen. She doesn’t have to be anything more to me. And take note, people do not always like the same people,” Steiner advised, his gaze drug to the General who followed behind the troupe and gave them a decent distance.

She flipped her hair over a tense shoulder when she passed by he and Vivi, and the young mage shuddered. Steiner pressed a hand to the boy’s shoulder, and Vivi marched on ahead after adjusting his hat.

***

His queen sat in her bedchamber, demure and silent in front of her window as she had always. The golden light cascaded around her and her white ball gown, fit for royalty and transcendent as a scene from a play. She held her pendant grasped in her lap, and her deep eyes gazed placidly at the scene outside the castle. Her face was downcast, her mouth a straight line.

He tried very hard not to make any noise after he clanked into her room. His armor was heavy on his shoulders, his helm scraped at his scalp—the scent of metal permeated until there was nothing else he could smell. It was jarring and disquieting, and the scene of his princess looking despondently out her window did little to soothe him.

Steiner had a feeling that Garnet did not appreciate his presence.

“Your highness?” His baritone fell into the room like a cannonball, and Garnet flinched visibly in her seat.

“Yes, Steiner? What is it?” She asked, her voice tired and her tone dreary, in stark opposition to the brightness of the room.

“Are you alright?” He asked, as quietly as he could muster, knowing full well that silence was not in his nature—

“I shall have to be, won’t I? Everyone will be as it should have been. I will be queen. My friends will have gone their ways. Zidane—” Her royal tonality skipped, hitched. Her voice tripped clumsily over his name.

Steiner was still as indignant to him as he ever had been. Especially after what that thief had pulled before her coronation recital!

“He behaved cowardly, your highness. You cannot think about him now! Not after everything that has occurred,” Steiner said. He wanted to call Zidane a base-born thief and knave who could not even muster the courage to look her in the eye, but found he could not. He ACTED a coward; Steiner did not know why he would have done so.

But it upset his queen-to-be.

“He wouldn’t even look at me,” Her voice was a hoarse whisper, her chin dropped into her chest and she dug her hands around her pendant.

“Your highness...” Steiner started, but Garnet shook her head quickly.

“You don’t understand. You never will. It matters not,” She said with decision and stood, turning to look at Steiner with all the manner of detachment; but Steiner saw through her dark eyes all the same. He knew the look she wore well; he saw the expression in the mirror every night.

“Things will be like they were. You needn’t worry about them anymore, and I suppose neither do I. Where is Beatrix? I need her help with...” Garnet looked down to her dress, the official documents on her nightstand, “Everything. For the moment,” She finished with a sigh.

Steiner gaped, tried to find words, failed.

How different was the way Zidane acted to the way Beatrix treated him now? How did Steiner tell his princess that he knew exactly how she felt, and that she should rise above it, get past this confounded emotion, when the very mention of the General robbed him of his breath? It was the pot calling the kettle it was cast iron.

“Yes, your majesty,” Steiner bit back everything he could have said. It was not his place. She would not heed him—he was a servant to her crown.

He marched from the room, had one of the guards fetch the General. Steiner was exactly where he had began as if the last half of a year did not happen.

Oh, how it absolutely _chaffed_.

***

The practice dummy was suited with the best armor Steiner could find—that could be used on a dummy anyway! Colonel Maia, Quartermaster extraordinaire, scoffed when she handed it over, said that it was about time Steiner requisitioned a new suit for himself.

Steiner left his trusted, rusty suit off to the side and stared down the training doll with a irritated twitch of his nose.

The Coral Blade in his hands hummed with Thunder, static buzzed throughout his fingers and he hated it and yearned for it and—

“ARMOR BREAK!” He bellowed, charged at the enemy, swung with all his might in a crescent from above, and struck the dummy with the force of a Zaghnol. The blinding light broke against his form and the metal tore, screeched, shattered backward as wood splinters and armor plating ricocheted behind the post that held the practice doll upright.

If it was a monster it would have been crippled. If it was a man...they would have been hewn in half.

Steiner huffed and heaved, turned to another dummy and swung. The impact made the dummy twirl, it’s weapon spin at him lamely and he smacked it away with the back of his hand, knocking the doll backward and over with a swift push kick that would have made mythical Spartans proud.

His head was pounding, his blood roaring, his hands gripped the hilt of his sword so hard his knuckles cramped.

The problem with fighting the creatures he had been fighting all year was thusly: Once he had shaken off the rust, so to speak, practice dummy’s did nothing but annoy.

A clapping sound distracted him from his tumult. Steiner glanced up from the broken dolls to see Zephyr, knight of the general’s squad, bringing her hands together with a blasé look of boredom in her sky blue eyes. The helm he had just requisitioned rested in the crook of her arm, the visor split and the top buckled inward.

“Impressive, Captain. You’ve improved dramatically,” She tossed the helm at him with a lackadaisical motion, and he caught it as abruptly as he had smacked away the club from the sparring tool. It was a fine helm, and he had ruined it in a temper tantrum. His jaw clenched, and he sheathed the coral sword into its scabbard still hanging on a fence post of the practice ring.

“I’ve no use for dolls. They are no threat, and no measure of a knight’s strength,” Steiner replied gruffly, shaking his head and raking his hands into the hair at the top of his head.

Zephyr nodded, stepped over the railings of the ring with smooth, slow strides. She was almost as tall as he was, dark haired like him as well. Steiner often wondered if their families hailed from the same stretch of mountains, long ago.

“Then you should test you skill against a worthier foe,” She said evenly, pulling her mythril greatsword from its sheath and readying her stance. Steiner scrunched his nose at her, shrugging in confusion.

“I don’t feel like playing games—” He began, but her eyes sharpened and she leapt forward, her blade singing in an arch toward his side. His eyes bulged but his hand pulled the Coral Sword on instinct, blocking her silver-blur claymore just in time, but poorly. Her blade bit into the flesh of his bicep several centimeters and he growled at the burning pain.

With a swift push, his blade sent hers sailing back, but she caught her footing quickly. Zephyr fought like Beatrix had trained her, quick and nimble, belying her tall stature, large blade, and strength. She swung like a hammer, all power and no nuance, and when he parried he felt like he was blocking boulders being hurled by giants.

Zephyr gave him no quarter, despite him being unarmored and unprepared. Steiner was familiar with her ruthlessness, and found she was more forgiving than her General.

It was her downfall.

She stepped back when she should have pressed forward, and he used her advantage against her, following back before she could take a respite. Her blade was large and cumbersome, and while she controlled it well, she mistimed her backswing, and Steiner stepped into her arch before she could make use of it, grabbing the hilt of her blade and twisting it away from her, striking her abdomen with the pommel of his blade, and a shoulder-check sent her staggering backward.

Steiner leveled both her blade, and his, directly at her nose.

“Yield,” He growled, unamused and glaring, his bicep screaming at him under the oozing gash she gave him mercilessly.

Zephyr smirked, held up her hands, bowed her head without breaking eye contact.

“I yield, Sir Knight,” She said with a searing look, and stood to cross her arms. He tossed back her blade and she caught it, twirling it to sheath it away deftly. Steiner pressed his hand to his arm and the only wound given during this bout.

“I’ve never crossed blades with you, Steiner. I understand why the General gets so frustrated with doing so. You’re unmovable,” She said conversationally, and Steiner wanted her to just shut up about the entire debacle.

“Beatrix has trounced me time and again, she has nothing to be frustrated about,” He rebuked, picking up the broken armors to hand in to Maia, grimacing through the pain.

“She has plenty, most of all with the trouncing, I would think,” Zephyr replied lowly and with some secret smile, but Steiner scoffed it away.

“Go have a healer look at the wound, Captain. Tell them it was I. They’ll mark it on my tab,” She urged, but Steiner shook his head. The only healer around the castle right now was either the princess or...

“I’m not troubling the General with a scratch,” Steiner grumbled, but Zephyr caught him by the shoulder, pulling him up to meet her blizzard gaze. His arm froze up at her contact.

“Trouble her. It’s deep enough of a wound to warrant it, and...” Zephyr released him went he rolled his shoulder away in discomfort, “She could use the distraction. It’s too quiet in her office, these days.” She advised, stepping back and leaving the ring in her smooth gait and steadying presence.

Steiner looked down at his bicep. At the gouge she gave him almost instantly and then didn’t scrape him afterward. He didn’t aim to harm her but...she could have more than she did.

He huffed, grabbed the wound to slow the bleeding, and went to find Beatrix.

*

“Zephyr? She challenged you? Odd,” Beatrix’s tone was painfully formal, her hand glowing as she pressed her warm palm to his bicep. It stung, but it wasn’t as bad as the Bandersnatches before. And it wasn’t so much the warmth as the tingle that went through his arm that gave him pause.

“She did. Said the dolls weren’t much of a match. Pulled her blade on me,” Steiner shrugged his other shoulder, watching her hand as it gently ran along the length the cut.

“Dolls aren’t much of a match.”

“I didn’t have anything else,”

“Maia said the mythril plate burst and burned. You broke it like it was casted iron,”

“It wasn’t hard. The armor must have been faulty,”

“Doubtful.” She basically huffed, her jaw tense and her back rigid.

“What do you want from me, Beatrix?” He met her eye—a stormy amber—and she froze. Gaze flickered back and forth on his face.

“Nothing,” She pulled her hands from his arm and he almost leaned toward her fleeing touch, “I’ve no right to be prying into your matters,” She dismissed, and he knit his brows at her.

“I don’t have any matters, Beatrix. My life is exactly what you see of it,” He made a show of checking his arm after her work, knowing it would be immaculate, unable to meet the burning of her gaze.

“And so you regularly shatter magical platemail for the fun of it, then?” She said quickly, her hands in her lap and still looking at him. He paused his prodding.

The blood stain ruined this shirt.

“It’s a good diversion,” He admitted weakly, eyes flickered up to her unreadable expression. She looked down at his bicep, but her gaze traveled up his arm and to his collar. Her hand reached up, wavered over that spot where his neck met his shoulder, at the vengeful scar that lie hidden underneath.

She hadn’t gotten to it with Cura in time for it to heal without trace. It would always be there, a reminder of when she tried to cleave his head from his shoulders with a flash of red power. The only reason she couldn’t was his Thundara-blessed ice brand against her hip.

Steiner resisted the urge to look where he had struck her before. For many reasons. Least of all it was her hip!

“I would recommend better uses of Alexandrian property than your diversions if you’re going to be destroying such valuable equipment,” She finally said, and he smirked bitterly at it. Right to business then. Her hand dropped to her lap and he gripped his shoulder tightly.

“Or a more engaging sparring partner,” She added, and he glanced up at her with an eyebrow raised.

“Zephyr was very engaged,” He replied with a huff of a laugh and Beatrix shrugged nonchalantly.

“Not enough to relieve the tension building beneath that chasm of a frown,” She poked at his shoulder, his rib, his collarbone, and he barely flinched away each time.

“Besides. I could use the exercise. I’ve gotten a bit _rusty_ in my swordplay, and who better than you to infuriate me back into shape?” Beatrix mused with humor, and Steiner glared at the use of the blasted nicknamed word. 

“We are comrades, after all.”

“Yes, General. Perhaps even _friends_.”

“Don’t make this awkward, Captain.”

“Ha!”


	29. On a Rose as Red as Rust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night before the end of the world, and a little during, and a taste of after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bug I’ve had since ‘Nine Snippets’, and I’m honestly glad I waited so long to write it. It’s given me time to get the feel of the story, the ebb and flow of the relationships, and finally commit to an ultimate alteration. 
> 
> Obviously, these scenes never happen in the game, as you can go from Terra straight to Memoria if you do nothing else, but where’s the fun in that?

“ _After Alexandria...I thought of relinquishing my knighthood many times. Seeing this sky convinced me. There are still things that I have to protect.” -Steiner on the deck of the Invincible, watching the mist engulf the planet underneath the periwinkle sky._

The Invincible was an imposing airship, and its red gaze made her very skin crawl. Her side throbbed in a phantom pain at the sight of it, and even when she realized that her princess now piloted the vessel, it did little to assuage her unease.

Garnet was the first to greet her as the alien ship lighted on what remained of Alexandria’s airship dock. The princess looked up at the ship as her party came down its ramp, along with several people that looked very similar to her thief. Tailed, blonde-haired beings.

“I’ll explain everything. This is Mikoto,” Garnet gestured to one of the tailed-ones beside her, Zidane at both their elbows.

“She’s kinda like my sister!” He piped up unnecessarily. Beatrix rose a brow at he and his clone-sibling, and nodded her head.

“She’s a sort of liaison for the genomes, that is, them,” Garnet waved her hand at the dozen blondes, and Beatrix hummed on acknowledgement.

“Many of them stayed in Black Mage village, but, Mikoto was adamant she be here. We can’t take her to the Iifa Tree, though,” Garnet explained, and Beatrix shook her head in confusion.

“Don’t worry, Bea. We’ll give you the rundown,” Zidane said chipper and sure, and what did she have to do except hope this all made sense?

*

“So the new Mist is from this giant, insidious, alien tree from another planet that feeds Gaian’s to the people the planet lost?” Beatrix recapped, looking between the troupe of heroes that sprawled around the Queen’s lounge. To think, months ago she tried to kill (some of) them in this very room! It was one of the few that was unscathed from the attack.

“More or less, yes,” Garnet agreed.

“And Kuja used trance to destroy this dying world, Terra, and the resulting chaos tore through time and space to this mythical crystal realm where he plans on destroying reality?” Beatrix added, pressing a hand to her temple.

Mikoto nodded, “More or less, indeed,” She concurred, and Zidane punched her in the arm in good humor. She seemed confused by the action.

“And you plan on piloting the Invincible to this ‘Memoria’ and stopping him.”

“Awesome, she knows the damn plan. So what?” The Salamander cut in, his form lounged on the steps below the loveseat that the princess, Mikoto, and Zidane sat on. Vivi sat with the summoner girl, Eiko, in a similar seat, and Freya stood in front of the fireplace drowned in her own thoughts, it seemed. Steiner stood nearest to her, only just out of arm’s reach, intensely analyzing the patterns on the rug. The Qu walked back and forth sniffing the flowers that decorated the space.

“We can’t involve Cid, or Lindblum, or even Alexandria. But I needed someone to know what happened. In case...anything does happen to us,” Garnet explained exasperated, pressing her palm to her forehead. Amarant shrugged and looked at the General in boredom.

“What happens, happen! Make no difference! Make Kuja into pie, or become pie!” Quina announced from the corner of the room. “Can’t not do nothing. Must do something.”

“Yeah. There’s nothing to do but go find Kuja and stop him before he does something terrible. But we gotta make sure at least someone higher up knows what’s going on,” Zidane finished, and Beatrix shrugged in defeat.

“Sounds like you’ve all made up your minds about this. There’s nothing I can say or advise at this point,” Beatrix said reluctantly, and Zidane nodded emphatically. Petulant boy.

“That’s not it. It’s just that we have the best shot at doing anything about it. If all else fails, it would fall to you and Uncle Cid to deal with whatever Kuja gets past us,” Garnet filled in, and Beatrix did not like the idea of how quickly she had a contingency plan.

“Gets past you,” Beatrix stated and stared into the deep brown eyes of her princess.

“If Kuja succeeds in Memoria, there will be no need for your back-up plan,” Mikoto said, clinically detached. “There will be no recovery. The crystal will shatter. Existence will end. This is the point. This is his design.”

The silence deafened. Freya shifted feet. Garnet’s eyes darkened into twilight pearls. Zidane’s flippant manner deflated. Eiko hid her face in Vivi’s shaking shoulder. Steiner didn’t move, unshakeable beside her.

‘CRUNCH’. Quina chomped half a bouquet into their mouth. Everyone stared, startled.

“Wonder if crystal taste like rock candy...” S/He mused through the munching of the flowers, and Amarant stood with a groaning stretch.

“Whelp. With that, I’m going to bed before the end of the world. Ciao, losers,” He saluted limply, sauntering from the room. “I’ll be in the ship, whenever you’re ready to go.”

“We should all...probably prepare. We’ve gotten as ready as we can,” Garnet turned to Zidane and he nodded. Beatrix inhaled deeply, felt her heartbeat in her throat, her fists tightened at her sides.

“In any case, Bea, you’ve gotta know what’s up. In case we beat Kuja but...I dunno. Something else happens,” The thief broke through her thoughts and she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked to see Steiner’s gauntlet on her, Zidane’s confident smirk faltering, fake. Garnet nodding her approval.

Beatrix exhaled slowly, and saluted.

“Of course, your highness,”

Garnet’s large eyes watered, lip quivered, and Beatrix fought the burning in her own throat.

*

She was glad she had prepared the Red Rose. Not that Garnet said she would be needing it.

The princess actually specifically said “No, Beatrix. We can’t risk the last of Alexandria’s military on this. Let the Invincible live up to her name. Stay here, in case Cid needs you.”

Beatrix hated sitting back while others risked everything and she was left standing in their wake. And when she went to check on the status of the ship, she found she was not alone.

Steiner’s chinking of his new armor followed her there, and she couldn’t truly express the relief at having him around after the awful revelation of what they were doing.

They talked. About the quest, what happened after their mirror search. All the little places in between. Where he got his new armor and sword. Terra.

“Beatrix it was awful. I’d never even dreamed of the destruction wrought by Kuja. The entire planet...it just burned. If we don’t stop him...” Steiner said, sitting with her on the deck of the Alexandrian flagship. His helmet was set off to the side, his gleaming diamond mail catching the setting sun and shimmering on the wooden planks as he moved. She prodded at the glowing chainmail that held the plates together periodically.

“Still. We can help. Do you even know what you will be facing going up against this...Memoria?” She asked, running her fingers back through her hair at the thought. Steiner wrapped an arm about her shoulders and pulled her into his metal side.

“Kuja will not make it easy. But we can prevail, nonetheless. There is a limit to his might, I am sure,” He assured, but Beatrix sighed through her nose and stared at him in point.

“Are you, indeed?”

His face fell, and he shook his head.

“Not really. But there has to be. He is formidable, but mortal,” Steiner nodded to himself, and Beatrix leaned into his steel embrace. She picked at the sides of his armor, suddenly annoyed at the barrier. He didn’t notice, because this was Adelbert Steiner and of course he wouldn’t.

“And you leave tomorrow then?” She asked in barely a murmur, and he nodded surely.

“That is the plan. Kuja is ahead of us, so we must work doubly hard to catch up,” He said, and she paused at the thought. They were going after a planet-killing sorcerer mad with destruction into a plane of existence barely comprehensible by any of them.

That was a sentence she would have never thought of before this moment.

She looked at him, really looked at him; in his new armor and his new blade, and when she blinked he was as he had been months ago—old armor, rusted edges from years of use, a sword she could have snapped over her knee.

Was he always this brave?

 _And this foolish_ , her heart whispered at her as it drown in her chest.

“This doesn’t sound real...” She breathed, still looking at his profile as he watched the sun slowly set on the horizon. He smirked; that dull, black smirk he gave her as he fell under the Bandersnatches.

“I know. But if we don’t face him, nothing will be,” He answered, turning his face to look at her with heartbreak swimming in his hazel gaze. Steiner looked...like he accepted this. Whatever it was. Like he was facing one hundred knights and knew he had to or fall.

Determination and courage and honor and hope—

Beatrix would never see him again. She could...feel it. He was going to die; and he knew it.

She grabbed him by the mail collar and pulled him down to meet her lips; crashing against his—his muffled sound of surprise lost in her breath, her nails dragged against his neck and jaw, the only parts of flesh she could reach on him—for now.

At some point she stood. At some point she pulled him towards the door of her quarters. At some point she opened it and he braced himself in the doorframe, halting her pull and breaking away from her.

She paused; a knot forming in her chest as he stayed stock still in her doorframe, eyes wide and face flushed from effort she took in drinking him in. It was like Stop had been cast.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” He whispered, shaking under her palms. She smiled mischievously up at him.

“You never have,”

“That’s not what I mean,” He half-whined, half panicked, and she kissed his cheek, never breaking eye contact.

“Do you want me to stop?” She asked, lips still against him as she did, and he shook his head immediately if, absently.

“Then I’ll show you,” She gave a final tug on the collar of his mail, and he folded like cheap tin under her whim.

*

_She was relentless.  
_

_Breathtakingly...divinely...unabashedly relentless. She pulled him...pushed him...molded him in her hands like he was modeling clay. Her hair tangled in his fingers, her mouth traced patterns on his scars...he sank his teeth into the one he gave her on her hip. She gasped sounds that struck thunder in his veins and the fading golden sun shimmered off her like she was made of brass and light._

_She tasted like Shock, and she moved against him like the fury of Climhazard; red-hot and pounding. Beatrix challenged him here like a Stock Break, an Armor Break...defiantly and petulantly and wonderfully, leaving him prone and bare and vulnerable and alive. He breathed her in like the air before a storm, the moment before rain broke, the static before a strike._

_She bent him, hammered him on the anvil of her body—heated him until he was sure he would shatter...he knew now what iron felt when it became steel. She reforged him, melted away the rust and the erosion and the useless parts of him...seared him into diamond._

_She was relentless. And in the wake of her hands all he could do was yield. And yield._

_And yield._

*

“You should be sleeping,” She murmured to him, her forehead pressed against his as they faced each other, a tangle of limbs and sheets and sparks still smoldering on his skin.

“I can’t,” He answered uselessly, but she smiled through a puff of a laugh. Her eyes were half closed, the scarred part of her face bare as his flesh but pressed into the pillow they shared.

“I shudder to think I would have caused the exhaustion that takes your life, Adelbert,” She replied, and he smiled broadly at the thought.

“I would go down tired with a very good reason, then,” He remarked, and just as the brightness of the jest danced in her eye it darkened, and she snaked her arms around his neck to try to pull him closer. She shook, her breath quickened, her eyes clenched shut.

Adelbert kissed the scar on her forehead, pulled her into his chest and held her as tightly as she held him, and buried his face into her hair. His hand threaded itself into her tangled stands, ran over her scalp and down her back as long as the knots in her chestnut mane allowed, and he glared at the passing of night outside; praying that for once, the sun would be late.

*

She watched him, placidly as she could, when he stood from the bed to don his armor. He was slow and methodical and focused; and she smiled to herself, knowing he was that way in more than one area of expertise.

Beatrix was sore in a way she hadn’t been in a very long time. And heartbroken in a way she had never been before.

“You do realize that you have to come back?” Beatrix finally broke the stillness, her knees curled into her chest, her cheek set on her crossed arms as she watched him buckle up the final side of his platemail.

Adelbert chuckled humorlessly, sat down on the edge of the bed, the weight of him denting the side as he was all armored save his helm.

“Why is that?” He asked playfully, despite the blackness that had settled in his gaze.

“I won’t make it too long without you,” She answered in half-jest, but mostly truth.

“Ah! You’ll be fine. You have that estate. Dozens of good looking men that would dote on you,” Adelbert assured, his hand settling on her foot under the rose red sheet she had wrapped about herself.

“I’ll die of boredom, you know,” Beatrix argued, smiling at him, wishing beyond hope she could bring herself to beg him to just...not go.

“That might be true,” He allowed, nodding. He stood, leaned into her and she pulled her head up to meet him in turn—he pressed his forehead against hers and her eyes burned.

“If I order you to live, would you heed it?” She asked, her voice breaking in her throat, her vision swimming and blurry with the sight of him.

“If I asked you to live a long, happy life for me, if I cannot...would you?”

“We were never very good at listening to each other’s orders,” And the flood in her broke, and he kissed her slowly, a good-bye that had never tasted so final to her, and he stepped back with one last, long glance, and turned to meet whatever fate had in store for him.

The world went mute. The sunlight that filtered through the windows had no buzz. The breeze left no trace. Her heartbeat refused to break that silence.

Beatrix’s face fell into her knees, and...perhaps she cried. She maybe even wept...it had been too long since she had let herself grieve or mourn or shatter.

And it wasn’t only Steiner...it was everything.

The Queen’s father dying in a war that should have never happened. Brahne harboring hatred for her father’s slayers for decades. The loss of the true Garnet; the king Valefor dying of an unknown illness, Brahne’s slow building cruelty and promises of greatness becoming the only thing she yearned for. Kuja and his promises of power, his weapons of death. Beatrix’s own frailties being thrown at her feet. Her pride and her disregard that lasted a decade over a man that helped her stitch herself back into something resembling herself. Her princess...in her dresses and braids that had barely become a woman—

She tore her head up with a growl and a gasp to glare at the rising sun. Heartbeat pounding. Breath screaming. Blood roaring.

If Adelbert Steiner could face down the gates of Hel, then she would charge them with him.

And she knew just who was crazy enough, and loved him enough, to follow her.

*

“That’s quite a woman you fell in love with!” Zidane shouted from console of the Invincible, and Steiner threw himself at the glass to watch the Red Rose shield them from a hurricane of white dragons. Her canons blazed and she veered off and into the clouds, taking half the drakes with her.

He almost didn’t respond; too overjoyed and infuriated that Beatrix would do something so foolish and yet...!

“You’re one to talk!” He bellowed back at the thief almost without thinking, their banter now as easy as yelling at the boy—

“What do you mean by that?!” Dagger yelled back, eyes indignant and face red and Steiner remembered himself for a moment—

But the moment was chaos. Airships and dragons and flaring pillars of magic pulsated from the spiraling orb-like Planetoid that was their target. They all laughed in that manic way one laughs when the world is about to burn and you can do naught but watch.

When the Invincible touched the plane of the crystal, time stopped. The orb collapsed in on itself. And unbeknownst to Steiner, practically exploded a moment after the Invincible vanished.

For him, an eternity passed in that space between breaths.

For Beatrix, she saw everything she loved go up in plasma fire.

*

“Don’t you dare die on me, Adelbert Steiner...I will not lose you in the same breath that I found you,” She had prayed to the sky before they charged the dragons. She hoped he heard her.

The drakes hit like she expected they would, and Haagen screamed as he was sent backward. Weimar clutched the railing, probably blubbering to himself, and Maia heaved at the helm trying to keep them from spinning out. Zephyr added her might to the task, and Mikoto stood quietly by, watching the scene of destruction before her with a dazed look.

“Thrusters at forty percent!” Haagen screamed.

“We can’t take another hit like that, General!” Weimar called, looking over the railing at the side the dragons had struck.

“And we’re losing altitude, General!” Maia shouted from the helm.

“We won’t be doing another maneuver quite like that, so get us flying straight!” Beatrix ordered, still calling on Dojebon to lay out suppressing fire so they could get the Red Rose on her feet again.

Cid’s fleet was taking much of the fire, but since they were Lindblum’s Airships and not the single one from Alexandria, Beatrix used it to the Red Rose’s advantage to limp behind the much more colossal Hilda Garde...whatever one it was now.

When the massive ball of energy collapsed in on itself, the Red Rose sprang from Cid’s shadowto watch the dragons fly toward the disappearing orb.

Everything was dark. The sun eclipsed by mist.

Then Memoria exploded.

The shockwave hit the Red Rose as hard as the dragons had, sending her sailing backwards. The knights on the deck all screamed or hollered or shouted and Beatrix grabbed the railing to keep her eyes on the ball of flame that erupted above the massive alien tree.

The force of its eruption knocked the entire fleet dizzy, and it took all hands on deck not to let the Red Rose spin straight into the side of a mountain. When they stabilized, there was nothing left of Memoria save a burning light that quickly faded in the sunset.

“Nothing could have survived that...” Beatrix murmured, stupidly, in afterthought. There was nothing left! How could—no!

“Captain!” One of his knights wailed beside her, and one of them collapsed to his knees, sobbing.

“They live,” Mikoto broke through their building despair quickly and with authority. Beatrix turned on her, gritting her teeth to keep from screaming.

Mikoto pointed at the base of the tree, and in the smoke and rumblings of the alien vines thrashing, she saw figures that simply had to be the party.

“Cid is closer. Weimar, Tell the Regent,” She picked him up off the deck and thrust him toward the comms station.

They lived—impossibly! They lived.

*

There was so much to do in the wake of the end of the world. The castle to be rebuilt. The Coronation proper. The search for Zidane.

So much rebuilding. So much archiving. So much change.

Beatrix stayed for her new Queen, to guide her and advise her and educate her on all the things Beatrix had picked up on over the years.

The two years of reconstruction were long. Longer years than Beatrix felt they ever had been before. But they were also wonderful, emotional, devastatingly lovely years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost done guys we made it
> 
> Edit: In case anyone wonders, I’m not good at ~steamy~ scenes but I’m a sucker for bittersweet and sensual goodbyes so thus this chapter.
> 
> Also! Quina was just fun to write. As was Amarant, even with all the shade I throw his way.


	30. To and From

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A series of correspondences between our two knights as Steiner joins the search for Zidane on the other side of the world. 
> 
> By the end, grief shows itself once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in time for the holidays, maybe even a little late, we have a chapter that touches on one of the saddest points of the game!  
> (I’m so sorry.) 
> 
> In letter form for the first bit. I didn’t really know how to make the transition any more...elegant? Hope you don’t mind.
> 
> Also, I might make this idea into a separate fic, this search for Zidane. There’s a lot of pieces moving and everyone has some stake in it, but we shall see if I have it in me after the epilogue of R&R.

“ _Chivalry requires a knight to look after his comrades-in-arms, and I will follow you to Kingdom Come if I must! You remember that!” -Steiner in Bran Bal_

Dear Beatrix;

I’ve landed in Lindblum, ready to depart with Tantalus to the Outer Continent within the week. The ship Cid sent was marvelous, yet it lacked the spark that her Majesty’s Red Rose has. It was another steam powered airship, not unlike its predecessors, but much more cramped. I suspect I’ll be in a situation with Marcus as we had in Treno, At least we won’t be sleeping back to back!

Lindblum is in good spirits about their reconstruction, and the kingdoms aiding each other in turn has made the last year a foggy memory. Not everything is perfect, naturally, but it is a sight better than before.

I am anxious to begin our search. Zidane has been unaccounted for for two months, and with what we last saw of the tree—

In any case. How are you? How is her highness? Are my knights behaving? How is your search for a new Squad going?

I’m meeting with Baku soon, so I shall end this here. (Forgive me, letters are not a comfortable way for me to express or communicate, and with this being our only interaction for the foreseeable future—blast it—I shall have to get better!)

Forever yours, nonetheless,

Adelbert

*

My brave Sir Knight,

The purple Moogle surprised me! I have never been on the receiving end of Mognet, and her highness had to tell me how it worked. I hope this letter finds you well. I worry, I hope you realize.

In a way, it is a balm to my heavy heart that Lindblum is blooming despite the war, if it can be called such. I wonder after the Burmecians, and hope that the reconstruction can be of some respite to their troubles. I say ‘troubles’ and I find I am fleeing a harsher and more desperate word.

Her highness...Garnet is beside herself with the hope that her prince of thieves yet lives. I remember the thrashing of that alien creature, ‘twas not a scene one forgets. I am only happy that Cid was able to secure a ship to lend to his friend (Baku and he are grand old schemers, apparently.) That it took so long, well. We’ve discussed this in person, I think. Cid could only afford to lend the ship at the present time.

I apologize, I know you are aware, but Garnet seems to need reminding that a Kingdom cannot upend itself over one person, no matter how important he may seem to a select few. To her credit, she is not being brash! I hope that is some comfort to you. She is reserved, perhaps more than she should be, to compensate for the anxiety. She is so...young. Remember how I said I worry?

The Pluto Knights...are as they always have been. Frustrating. Inept. Whole hearted and sincere. Breirecht has been a boon, to say the least. Even Weimar is behaving himself. Mullenkedheim has gotten past his moodiness for the greater part of our interactions and focuses more on food. I muse that perhaps he was always just—hungry? It’s an amusing thought and Haagen agrees with me. Dojebon is a rock when Breirecht’s age catches up to him, so I have been thinking better of the artillerist lately. I still have difficulty wrangling the writer and the sleuths, but five out of eight is a victory, I think.

My squad has some new members. Sans the one Ashton that decided to cross you in my presence. (I know you said not to do anything but it is something I never could stand, even years ago. Only I have the distinct privilege of mocking you.) Zephyr and Maia have taken to training the other six diligently, and...I am thankful for them.

I haven’t written a letter, a personal letter, to anyone since Florence and I ceased our correspondence over the whole D’Vry fiasco. If I haven’t told you that story, remind me to when you return. While I enjoy the catharsis of these intimate scribblings, I miss you. The castle is large and silent without your voice despite the construction and bellowing masons.

This got away from me! I shall have to sign off as to have something to write to you about later.

Stay safe my Captain,

Beatrix D’Alexandria

*

Dearest General,

Auch, but that was awful, and sadly I simply do not have the paper stores to do a rewrite! Apparently it’s a rather hard thing to get hold of out here, paper I mean!

I am not good at this! I knew you had a way with words, but I admit I could not have expected what I received. It was like I could hear your voice from the page. I think the parchment even smelled like you—but I got hit in the head by a griffon a few hours prior so it could have been that. And had to save Baku from said griffon.

I worry about you, as well. But I am happy to hear that our knights or our young Queen are not compounding to your difficulties. I did notice that you skipped anything about *you*, but I suppose I cannot pester you from here, so I’ll just save up all my frustrated worry for when I return. Be prepared, soldier! (That looks awkward but I don’t know how to fix it. Bah! I should have paid attention to those penmanship workshops years ago.)

Ashton, the one who snickered about my morning routine and sneered at me for my strict no-absence policies? Didn’t your whole squad once disdain me so? If I had known that gaining your affections would have spared me such grief I would have sought them sooner! (This is a jest—just, how do you do that? Convey in writing such things?)

You have not told me in detail about the Florence and D’Vry affair; I only knew you and your sister did not get along. I assumed it to always have been so! What did that fop have to do with it?

It has been “one hell of a trip” to quote Blank. Master Vivi is our acting navigator, steering us true when we have gotten lost or turned around. He had spent a great deal of time out here with the princess and Zidane, and the stories he has! All of them hilarious and wonderfully in character for the whole of our party. It makes me miss the little monkey tailed fool. More than I already did; and all of us in one place missing him makes it worse.

Currently we are camped at Madain Sari with Miss Eiko and the moogle’s permission. So I hope this letter finds you faster! There is myself, Baku, Blank and Marcus (always the two of them!), Master Vivi, and that bounty huntress Lani, of all people. I remember her vaguely, a proud, arrogant strap of a girl with a chip on her shoulder and far too much self-confidence. Now she seems...somewhat docile. Living a life of vegetarian peace with moogles.

The Iifa Tree withers as I write. It is a massive splinter on the desert, what once was lovely and mystical has turned rancid and cursed, patches of mist still abound here. I wonder where we will find Zidane, if indeed we can find him. The tree is...immense. The roots larger than the three kingdoms combined. I admit I am overwhelmed but not entirely disheartened. I’m sure he’s made his headway out of the tree.

I should get to bed; these candles don’t last as long as the ones back home.

Bereft of your presence,

Adelbert

*

My endearing and bumbling Captain,

‘Bereft of your presence’? My, my. I had to pause and re-read that. You made me blush. If it’s any consolation, I can tell that it’s you simply by the turn of phrase you use. The tripping over yourself is noticeable even in writing.

Fighting griffins? Is that where they all went? I’ll have to stop by the outer continent at some point then. I’m sure Master Vivi is thrilled.

As far as my squad goes, I’m hoping the amicability of your knights endears them to your troupe and puts behind us any trace of our feuding. I fear some of these women will not know you until you return, and I cannot wait to see the looks on their faces when they finally do. You’re a hero, now, didn’t you hear? Lindblum toy makers have made a figurine of you. Haagen is collecting the whole set. I would even proclaim you’ve got yourself a bit of a fan club! But you will see it. Hopefully soon.

I am sure if your companions did not miss your friend as much as you did, you would not be traveling with them. Give Blank and Marcus my love. Wish Master Vivi well for me. Is he challenging those griffins with you? I’m sure he faces anything with indelible courage.

Lani...my my. I seem to remember you describing someone else in a very similar fashion not too long ago. A brazen, insufferably prideful girl who always got in your way, beautiful though she was. Tell me, should I be concerned of this Lani?

Like many of your tales, it sounds like something out of a nightmare. I only hope you’re right, and the boy made some headway. Is it dying? That tree? It would be a comfort to know.

I am well, Adelbert. As well as I can be. I do not wish to pester you with fleeting emotions, and I am performing my duties more than adequately. Garnet is picking up the day to day duties of managing a kingdom in repair quicker than I or Doctor Tot could have hoped, and soon I will not have to shadow her for fear of something slipping through. In all things, she is excellent.

It leaves me listless sometimes. But my squad is growing, in ability and in number, and soon I will have nothing to do but rest on my laurels. Whatever those may be. Ah, but I am melancholic now over it!

I hope you enjoy the candle. It’ll last eight hours, I tested one myself. If it means I can get longer letters out of you, I’ll send you as many as I can.

With bated breath until you return,

Beatrix

*

My infuriating beloved,

Blank and Marcus have a tendency to read the plays Tantalus performs for entertainment on the long nights we travel, and as such there are a few new phrases I’ve picked up. Of which is the one above.

“I am well.” You wrote. Bah! You wear more armor than I do, invisible so it is. I would like to know those fleeting emotions, even so. I would ask were I there. But I didn’t write to start a fight. However, you should know that I can tell when you are being formal even in writing. The politeness does not bode well for the conversation.

You, resting on laurels? Never! You’ll have to hunt griffins and Marlboro’s on your downtime, once the princess, ah, the Queen has fully settled in. Idleness was never in your nature.

Why should you be worried of Lani? Do you believe her to be deceitful in her pacifism?! Perhaps you are right! Perhaps she is tricking us! I will be vigilant! Have no fear.

The tree is indeed dying. Some of it twitches sometimes, and as I write (thank you for the candle, by the way. It’s been a long day) Blank is nursing cracked ribs from the nascent thrashing of a root we were investigating. We found a scabbard for a dagger, and Master Vivi is immensely hopeful this bodes well for the rest of the trip.

I am...unsure. I have seen Zidane’s strength firsthand, and I do not doubt his love for the princess. But would he not have come back by now? I cannot think negatively. It will do naught but distract.

I wish you were here. I feel like I have no direction. You would have a sharp eye for the search patterns and a direct and organized approach to the whole ordeal. Baku and the boys are diligent, tireless, and determined, but they lack a sense of order and structure that could make this process less...messy. And they will not listen to me no matter how loud I yell! Which is for the best. I am not fit for this scale of search. I can only hope to help them find some trace of him besides a torn article of gear.

Give the princess my best and my knights a stern talking to! And tell them I miss them. Perhaps almost as much as I miss you.

Baku and Marcus send their regards (well, Marcus sent an air-kiss and I don’t know what to do with that) and Master Vivi hopes you are well.

Always thinking of you,

Adelbert

*

12 letters and a few months later...

*

Dear Miss Beatrix,

It’s me, Vivi. I dunno how to write very well but I’m gonna give it my best!

Mister Steiner is okay, he’s just kinda been hurt a little. Not a lot! But we were out of tents and healing stuff so we had to go back to the moogles and rest here in Eiko’s old home. (I miss her...)

Steiner is knocked out at the moment, but he should be up soon. There was a big vine that came down at Marcus and Mister Steiner pushed him out of the way before being squished! But he’s okay and Baku is taking good care of him. He asked about you when he was asleep. And screamed about Oglops. I never got to ask him why he doesn’t like them.

I didn’t read your letter to him, if you’re worried.

I was writing because I don’t know if I’ll get another chance to. Seeing the moogle with your letter made me think about it a lot. I’m going back to Black Mage Village soon, I’ve got a few people I would like to meet! They’ll be hatching soon. (They’re Black Mages so they hatch.)

I wanna spend time with them when they do, like Grandpa did with me. I dunno when I’ll be able to come by Alexandria, but I’ll do it when they can travel! I miss Dagger, and it’ll be nice to see her instead of just writing her letters.

Anyway! I got off topic.

After everything that happened...you know, with Brahne and stuff, I was really mad for a long time. Kuja made it even worse. I was...really mad at you, too. I’m not anymore! I just thought...I dunno if I’ll get another chance to write to you, is all.

Mister Steiner helped a lot with how mad I was, back then. Zidane helped me see clearly when it came to Kuja, Dagger helped me see past what Brahne became, and Steiner helped me with you.

I wondered why he wasn’t ever as angry with you as we were. Freya said he had good reason to be, but I dunno what that is. Maybe grown up stuff? Maybe the same stuff I was mad about? Anyway, I’m not mad anymore. I hoped that we could be friends; every time I saw a griffin here I thought about what you said. About being brave. I’m trying to be. It’s hard sometimes.

Nobody ever tells you how hard it is to be brave. That it’s easier to run away. To give up. Kuja thought that because he was gonna die that meant that his life had no meaning.

I think he realized he was wrong. I think that’s why we lived. I think that’s why Zidane went after him in the tree. I also think Zidane would have gone anyway, even if he didn’t.

I’ll always remember you, General. For the good stuff! Not the scary stuff. I learned so much from everyone, even you. That it’s okay to be scared. That it’s never too late to do the right thing. That people are not always what they seem to be.

Steiner should be awake so he can write you later! Tell Dagger I said hello and that I miss her.

I hope my sons get to meet you soon!

Vivi

*

Dear Beatrix,

Vivi has sons!! There’s...five of them! They all look like him!

Ah...I’m fine, truly, you needn’t be so worried. Marcus and Blank are not healers but they scrounge up infallible medicines! I’ll have a new scar to show you! I...don’t know if that helps any...back to Vivi’s boys!

But, well, I should back up. Vivi went back to Black Mage Village, because they figured out how to use the remaining Mist to make black mages modeled after Vivi. (He’s a prototype? Or something like that.) Vivi has taken up the post of being the resident ‘elder’ of the village, and he thought that the dissipating mist could be used for a good purpose instead of running wild on the continent.

And he has five sons now. They’re all very excitable! They call me ‘Uncle Steiner’ and they can’t wait to meet everyone. Vivi is so proud! And the tantalus men are very confused.

It halted our search for Zidane for the moment, but Baku says we shall resume once we’ve rested and spent some time with friends. He is...despondent. Moody. I think he has resigned himself to Zidane’s...

I don’t think the boy is gone. I cannot think like that.

I will bring him back to Alexandria—even if it’s in a box. I will not leave my friend out to the desert crows.

I do not know how much longer it shall be. But I cannot lose heart. I only hope things have gotten normal again in Alexandria. And that you are doing as well as you can. And these months have been grueling, to say the least. It seemed as though we had very little time being...together? I don’t know the words...except I think of you often. When it storms, or there’s lightning. Eiko’s moogle friends are growing flowers, and I wonder how your garden is doing...small things every day.

I miss her highness, as well. I wish I was some solace to her, or had some better news. But for now, Vivi’s sons will have to suffice!

Always, and I mean that!

Adelbert

*

4 letters and some months later...

*

My dearest,

I barely know how to begin. I’m so...sorry. I have not the words to express my sincerest empathy at the loss. I am afraid I don’t know much about Black Mage biology. I didn’t even know they...stopped. Vivi was...a Boy. How could this be?

You’re right, it is not fair. And you have a right to be angry. To grieve for your friend. I am furious and despondent that I am not there. To be of some comfort.

Garnet...Dagger is beside herself. I have never seen her cry quite so much. Not even after everything that happened last year. It’s good for her grieve, by all, she needs it.

I understand her woe. Vivi is far more tragic of a loss than what she has endured. And what you have, as well.

The Red Rose has been fitted with Cid’s new steam engines, and we should be at the village at the end of the month. Garnet insists she will see him and everyone else. I am anxious to see you again. Especially with this...I worry, recall?

I hope this letter arrives only just before we do. Until then, please do not do anything rash. I know the area is full of monsters to slake your grief on, but I would not wish you more harm because of it. Stay with Marcus and Blank. They will help, regardless of how you’re feeling at the moment; trust my judgement on this, please.

Be in one piece when I see you again,

Beatrix

***

Black Mage Village, Late Autumn, 1801.

It took every ounce of self control she had not to hold him when they arrived in the Black Mage village. She hadn’t seen him in six months, and he looked like he hadn’t slept since he left.

The Red Rose had landed beside the Prima Vista and Hilda Garde III, and Garnet rushed out to him and the surrounding Black Mages. Beatrix found herself among the group that saved their world, sans Zidane and...Young Master Vivi.

Steiner stood at the entrance of the village, Black Mages circling around as newcomers arrived, but her focus settled and locked on him. He was out of his armor, and to her eyes might as well have been as bare as the day he was born. His hands clasped a worn leather hat, his frown an immense crag on his face, shoulders slumped, his eyes red and puffy. Beatrix read him like a book she had owned for a decade, and her heart sank with the sight his grief.

The Queen stopped inches from him, clad in her old adventuring gear and still-growing hair. She looked from him to the hat, and back again, like she was hoping it hadn’t been true—and fell against him in an embrace born from the same loss.

Eiko wept into Lady Hilda’s skirt, and the Regents of Lindblum did their best to soothe. Freya clasped Steiner on the shoulder and hung her head. Amarant brushed his thumb against his nose absently and repeatedly, and the little former bounty hunter lass patted his shoulder awkwardly. Even Quina, who never seemed to be able to get their mind off food, stared unblinkingly at the ground.

Beatrix felt out of place. And numb. Adelbert and Garnet cried silently together, and the others dealt with their grief as they best knew how, and all she could feel was loss and regret for not writing the boy as much as she could have.

A tug on her gauntlet.

She looked down to see Vivi pulling on her sleeve, holding up the Griffin Heart she had blessed him with a year ago; and her heart leapt into her throat.

Five Vivi’s. The same blue coats. The same worn leather hats that Steiner held. The same wide, innocent, yellow eyes.

She blinked slowly, took in a breath. His sons.

“Are you the General?” The one with the pendant asked.

“Papa told us about you!”

“He showed us the Griffin heart!”

“That’s not a heart it’s a piece of jewelry,”

“Shaddup! Papa called it a heart!”

Beatrix held up her hands in surrender, the softest smile she could manage to the lot of them before Eiko came barreling into view, shouting excitedly about them and hugging each one in turn. The General stepped back and Garnet walked up to them, dropping to crouch to meet them all for the first time.

The party gravitated toward the sons of their friend, and Beatrix stood on the outlines, one of her hands clasped to her elbow. A warm presence filled the space beside her and she closed her eye in relief. Adelbert.

“I’m afraid I’m a bit out of place, here,” Beatrix admitted to him in a sigh, and heard a feminine huff of a laugh.

Her eye snapped open and turned to the female Burmecian by her elbow. Freya flicked a glance to her and nodded.

“Did you at least get to speak to him before he left?” She asked a reeling Beatrix, and she looked at Freya with a hint of confusion.

“Vivi, I mean,” The dragoon clarified. Beatrix schooled her expression, and nodded. Freya smiled in return.

“Very good. The best thing we can leave to our friends is our thoughts and memories of them. That we thought well of them in the end,” Freya gently set her hand on Beatrix’s shoulder, and the General couldn’t help but feel like it was a familiar heat. With a knit brow, she watched the knight walk away to her gaggle of friends.

Adelbert looked at her from across the group with a sad smile on his face, and she gave a subtle and awkward wave he only grinned wider at.

The scene before her was filled with excited chatting, new friends meeting old friends, and the beginnings of a soft wake for a beloved family member. The sun was shining, the air was crisp and fresh, apples fell from far away trees with dull thumps.

Beatrix locked eyes on her Captain, begrieved and yet smiling. She only hoped that in the end, anyone could think well of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to add in a smattering of Beatrix contemplating her leaving at the end here, so here’s to hoping that read the way I wanted it to!
> 
> I have never had a beta reader for this fic; so much of it is just hoping my writing comes across clear. 
> 
> Reading back over some of my earlier chapters makes me cry but there’s naught to do but go forward!


	31. Rest and Reconstruction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garnet and Steiner return home to Alexandria, shortly after saving the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this one is a bit snippet-y, but I didn’t want to end the series quite yet on the note I did. So here’s some shameless filler!
> 
> (Note: If I’m not mistaken Steiner is 6’3, according to the guides. Or he’s like 6’1. Either way, is tol.)

Late 1800 well into 1801  
  


It had only been a little while since their return, but Alexandria was well on her way to being reborn. The world had turned upside down for the lowly Captain of the Knights of Pluto, and as drained as he was, he could not help but silently cry at the sight of his home.

The Red Rose limped her way back to Alexandria Castle, and was met by elations of the entire staff and townsfolk. Beatrix and his knights brought he and his princess home safe, and now there was just so much to do.

Steiner walked in a haze behind an anxious Garnet, fresh from temporarily being separated from her friend and lover, but she was determined and in high spirits that he would return soon, despite the death throes of the Iifa Tree.

“Yes, I’m sure he will return, but in the meantime, you’ve a kingdom to run!” Doctor Tot said alongside her. They were walking back to the keep proper from the airship dock, and one by one the Pluto Knights were sent off to tend to their wounds and rest before their duties could be picked back up—Steiner found he only had the strength to send them away, and his voice had barely gotten above a murmur.

“Yoo luke eechashetod—“ Beatrix spoke nonsense beside him, he felt her hand on his elbow as they kept walking, Garnet and the Doctor became blobs of color and more nonsensical sound.

“Am I still dead...?” His tongue was lead in his mouth, and Beatrix shifted so fast she was a blur, the castle went from red and pink to blue and crystalline. He saw flashing lightning and felt rain coming down on him...

Then nothing.

*

“Adelbert!” Beatrix cried and tried to catch a six-foot-three wall of a man in full plate mail armor as he went crashing forward onto his face.

She did not succeed. She managed an arm around his chest and to fall to her knees beside him. Garnet whipped about, and in a flash of response that shamed Burmecians, immediately helped roll the knight onto his back.

Steiner was breathing, unharmed, and snoring softly as they did. Garnet was hovering her glowing hands over him, and Beatrix placed a soothing one on his forehead for once Garnet was finished with the scan. His skin was hot and dry, but he wasn’t flushed like he’d had a heatstroke or damp like a heart attack.

“He’s just...asleep,” Garnet said, baffled and letting herself smirk. Beatrix glanced up at her incredulously.

“He passed out from exhaustion,” The General deadpanned, then looked Garnet up and down. If Adelbert just collapsed...

“Are you alright?” She asked her queen.

Garnet looked at Beatrix, glanced down at herself, and stood, a puzzled expression on her face. She looked at the tips of her fingers, grabbed her head, shrugged her shoulders.

“I feel fine,” She shook her head lightly, crouching beside Steiner again.

“He asked if he was still dead,” Beatrix said lowly, looking from the comatose knight to her liege. Garnet knit her brows and pursed her lips in thought, again shaking her head.

“I don’t know what’s happening. But he’s alright. There’s nothing physically wrong with him. Let’s get him somewhere to rest properly. An infirmary, perhaps?” Garnet suggested, and Doctor Tot trotted down the grand foyer to find someone capable of moving the Captain.

“Alright, let’s get him up,” Beatrix agreed, pulling the knight up by his collar to get a better grip on him.

“Are-Are you sure? Can we even lift him?” Her doe-eyed princess admonished and Beatrix wryly smirked.

“Come now, your majesty. I’m stronger than I look. I’ll just need you to help me for a moment.”

The hardest part was lugging an almost three hundred pounds of man and metal up to her back, but the rest was easy. Garnet managed to coordinate enough to help her shoulder the Captain, and Beatrix got him to her quarters, at least.

The rest...well. Garnet didn’t need to help her get him out of the armor.

“Are you sure? This is your room...” Garnet looked about her quarters only a few hallways down from her own. The center of the castle was relatively untouched from the throned balcony to the Queen’s chambers deep in the keep. Only small cosmetic damages were done.

“I’m not about to toss him into the Pluto Knight’s wing. They’ll do nothing but fret and I’ve seen the way those men live. He’ll be under a pile of dirty laundry by the time he wakes up,” Beatrix mused down at her snoring Captain laid sprawled on her embroidered area rug.

“That’s...not what...nevermind,” Garnet shook her head, a small blush on her face, and Beatrix scoffed a laugh.

“It’s fine, your majesty. I’ll keep you updated on his condition. It will be easier for me to check on him and a lot more comfortable than anywhere else in the keep,” The General said easily and with a small shrug. A beat of silence was interrupted by one of his sharp inhales.

“As long as you’re looking after him...then I know he shall be alright,” Garnet said with a strong nod, and Beatrix smiled softly at her monarch.

“If you aren’t worried about a collapsing Steiner, then I shan’t be either. And as long as you won’t be joining him in swooning any time soon,”

“No, I am worried,” Garnet replied, tilting her head down at him, “But he is mighty, if nothing else. And he had a harrowing journey in Memoria...harsher than I,” She finished, her eyes braving Beatrix’s face but for a moment.

The General often forgot how fond Garnet was of Adelbert, before she became a teenager and spent most of her time avoiding him. Such short years ago, yet it seemed like a lifetime.

“Like a beetle, Marcus once said,” Beatrix quipped and Garnet giggled softly.

“Let me know when he wakes up. And you should rest as well. Not many take on an army of dragons and have the strength to carry Steiner around a castle,” The princess advised, glancing between them and hurrying off to find Doctor Tot.

Beatrix looked down at her snoring Captain and sighed through her nose, banishing her worries and swallowing her questions for the time being. She could be patient.

*

It was in the dead of night, three nights later that she felt him shift for the first time since she laid him down. He sat up straight out of a coma and set his hand on her shoulder, shocking her out of her half-sleep.

Beatrix fumbled for the lantern switch and sat up quickly.

“I didn’t mean to—where am I?” He asked, his voice dry and cracked. Beatrix stood and got a goblet of water from her vanity and pressed the cup into his hands.

“Be—” Adelbert began but she pushed the goblet into him further.

“Don’t speak, bottoms up. You’ve been out for a while,” She ordered, and he did so without fight. In fact, he drained the glass in record time and she brought the pitcher to her nightstand in preparation.

Adelbert blinked in the soft light, handing her back the glass and she refilled it.

“How,” He coughed into his shoulder, “How long have I been asleep?”

“You’ve been comatose for three days. How are you feeling?” She gave him back the glass and he downed it again.

“Hungry. Drowsy. Unfocused,” He answered and pressed his fingers into his eyes, blinking in the light. They were red and dry but open, and for that Beatrix was grateful.

“An appetite is good. I’ll fetch a cook,” Beatrix went to stand, but Steiner caught her arm and pulled her back down, wrapping his arms around her and pressing his forehead into her shoulder. She paused, only for a moment, and embraced him with a fervor she didn’t think she’d had.

*

It took a few days, but the Pluto Knight Captain was on his feet and pulling his weight when it came to reconstructing the castle and town. The princess was handling the administrative side of things effortlessly, with the help of her General, and Steiner followed orders.

With a few recommendations of his own! For the first time in his life that he was giving them to Queen and country.

The party had gone semi-separate ways after the Iifa Tree.

Freya went back to Burnecia with Prince Puck and her love, and Steiner missed her. She was a grand comrade and a dear friend, but they were knights. And knights defended their sworn protectorates.

Eiko stayed in Lindblum, proclaiming the castle hers! (“If Garnet is a princess then I wanna be one too!” She had said, and Lady Hilda grew too fond of her too quickly to turn her away.)

Quina went from kingdom to kingdom, being master chef for every noble and commoner they came across.

Amarant went back to Treno, and annulled his bounty. Perhaps he would find Lani...?

Zidane was still missing, but Baku was talking of a search party the minute they got an airship capable of flying the distance. Every ship that flew off of mist would not make another trip to the Iifa, and so it was a waiting game until Lindblum remade the Prima Vista.

Steiner missed them all and worried about Zidane, thought perhaps not to the point of distraction that Garnet found herself in.

And he had a very new paradigm to navigate at the moment. With one General of Alexandria. Especially now that he was on his feet and she didn’t need to fret over him.

“You sent your idiots to fret over me whilst you ran around stopping the end of the world, I think I can make sure you’re drinking enough water,” Beatrix chided one morning they spent in her office, dividing duties according to their strengths. It was a comfortable routine that they had been working on until Kuja ruined it with a summoned Eidolon and a broken realm.

“They told me about the state they found you in, I’m relatively unscathed,” Steiner argued with no venom, a small smirk as he sorted requisition forms. She huffed at him over the rim of her steaming teacup.

“Nonetheless,” She rebutted lamely and he chuckled.

“Nonetheless, I’m walking around just fine, now. Feel better than I ever have, really. Thank you, for that,” He said, setting aside the paperwork to focus on her. Beatrix, scourge of knights and greatest swordsman the world had ever known, flushed in the wake of her tea. She shook her head.

“I had ulterior motives, pulling you to my room,” She smiled secretly at him and Steiner blinked.

...?

“You have always had a hard time sleeping. It must be easier than sleeping alone,” He nodded in understanding, and she tilted her head at him with a slow blink of her own.

“It is, yes,” She nodded, a bemused smile coming over her face and Steiner knit his brows.

“Is there a joke I’m missing?” He asked hesitantly and Beatrix coughed a badly concealed laugh.

“No, no, Adelbert. I simply forget that you cannot tell when a woman is flirting with you,” She set her hand under her chin and smiled at him fondly. He blinked again. Flirting? Was that...?

“How was that flirting?” He asked incredulously, scrunching his nose.

“You’re right,” She agreed, dropping her hand to her cup, “I should have said ‘Pulling you into my bed’, my mistake,” Beatrix practically purred and took a delicate drink.

...?

Oh! _**Oh**_.

Steiner scratched at his temple, wide eyed and blush creeping up his neck. She was chuckling at him and he fought the tug of a smirk, dipping his chin into his chest to hide his face.

“You’re adorable when you’re shy, have I ever said?” She teased and he blubbered through a half hearted response that she laughed at.

And by all, it was a wonderful sound.

*

Later, they would decide that their untraditional courtship was actually happening and it was something to keep subtle and quiet for the foreseeable future. Nothing about them changed overnight.

Beatrix was a demanding and diligent taskmaster, stubborn and had to be right about everything. Too smart for her own good and kept him at arms length even when she pulled him closer.

Steiner was loud mouthed, boisterous and short fused, often saying something that he didn’t mean before he had time to think. He was obstinate and by the book, unyielding and uncompromising.

She called him stone-hearted and subsequently tried to shield him from hers. He called her belligerent without realizing that he would never budge an inch even when it benefitted him.

Steiner always knew that she grounded him. Stopped him and made him think. Beatrix was a woman divorced from most of her emotions, except for when it came to him.

It turned out that they suited each other perfectly, and even made a joke about how they should have been sneaking kisses around the castle for **years**.


	32. Rose of May

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where ambitions and dilemmas meet and are discarded; where a young man finally comes home and a general relearns where hers is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter of our mismatched snippet collection! 
> 
> If anything, this is dedicated to you, and twenty years of a story in the making. 
> 
> Thank you for being a part of my journey. I’ve learned more from writing this tale than I could ever describe.

“ _What to do when I was lonely...that was the only thing you could never teach me. But that’s something we need to figure out for ourselves.” -Vivi, Last Letter to the Party and Zidane._

And here she ended not with a bang, but with a creak. A faint sound of aging metal.

She pulled Save The Queen from her scabbard, and set it down on the princess’s table with a reverence that felt holy and complete.

“You have served me well,” She whispered to the diligent blade, “But my duty is done here.”

There was a catch in her voice as she said the words. She was no longer needed.

Alexandria was at peace, her Queen was wise beyond her years and would have the backing of some of the best and brightest in the world...and a Captain who would die for her.

She looked around her princess’s pink and floral chambers, her four poster bed where she and Steiner would read Garnet bedtime stories when she was little...Garnet was grown now, into a fine and capable young woman.

Beatrix was obsolete. A woman of war had no place here. No matter how much it ached to walk away.

*

_Some time before..._

It was the dawn that woke him up, always. Ever since he was boy.

Steiner was a man quick to bed and quick to rise, with the obscure ability to fall asleep in any position, at any place, in any weather. He once slept soundly at parade rest, in a sleet storm, guarding his post back when he was a Sergeant. Breirecht had laughed him awake!

So how easy for him, then, to fall asleep curled around a woman soft as down with a core of steel?

Beatrix clung to him because of the cold, the nightmares (hers and his), the insomnia...or simply because she could. Very physical, his General. It made him blush and smile all the same.

And after Vivi...it was wonderful to be reminded he was not alone.

But Dawn woke him up as if the light rang like bells.

His eyes opened to a mane of bronze hair wrapped around his face and neck, with her limbs tangled with his. Adelbert gently pulled himself away, his bare skin pebbling up in the wintry air.

Beatrix slept on her right side usually, her scar hidden in their pillow, as she did now. The only sign he ever woke her up was her fingers twitching against him as he moved off the bed. He pulled the blankets up over her shoulder and she shivered for a moment—he could see her eye flutter under her lid before she buried her face under the covers. Her hair splayed against the bed and was the only part of her he could see by the time she was done. He snickered to himself.

She was adorable; and that was something he never thought he would think.

As quietly as he could (as always) he donned his clothes and armor but carried his helm and boots out with him. (Steiner was sure he normally woke her up at this time, she just refused to move. Never was a morning person, Beatrix.)

The quarters they shared nestled in the keep proper, near everywhere he needed to be in the castle, and it was a silver lining in the reconstruction of Alexandria. (Both the sharing of quarters and the proximity of the castle.)

He clanked his way through his rounds, yelled at his men, and finished his patrols all before noon. Busiest part of his day, the morn! It got him out of his own head, distracted him from his thoughts, kept him from being too forlorn over...

Zidane could not be found. The search was halted in the wake of Vivi’s death, even as the Prima Vista kept a thorough lookout on the Outer Continent.

And as close as he and Beatrix had been lately...he knew her all too well. Her gaze had been distant since he returned from his search of the Iifa. She had been pushing her newly made squad and drilling them harder than she had in years. Beatrix was instructing Zephyr on tactics, treaties, kingdom duties...things the General of Alexandria did.

A year ago, Steiner would not have noticed a thing.

Now? All he could see was her readying her flight.

She didn’t say anything. Oh, the things Beatrix did not say were heavier than the things she did; but she held him like she was missing him. Talked to him like she was memorizing his voice. He caught her either staring at him, ever absently, or gazing anywhere but where she was when she didn’t think he was looking.

Beatrix was going to leave. Adelbert didn’t know when, but he could sense it.

She was a thunder bolt taking the path of least resistance, bending away from him when he should have grounded her. He once told her that he would let her go. How unfortunate that he lied to her so! Alas, if she would not strike him, he would instead catch her lightning!

Perhaps he had been around Marcus and Blank too much. Six months was a long time to be around the same five people.

Steiner mused in his thoughts until about afternoon, checking the finalized projects of the castle. Standing in the courtyard in front of the fountain, he could smile and say it was like the last year never happened.

But the fountain was new. The repair of the moat had made the Raza by the castle clearer than ever, bright and glistening. The bricks of the courtyard were newly cast, free from the mold and moss of before. The pillars were unblemished, and Alexandria keep gleamed triumphantly as he smiled up at his reforged home.

A pitched bubbling sound broke into his reverie, and he looked across the grounds to see a purple-coated moogle flying at him at top speed. Steiner’s eyes widened and he made motion to catch the mognet moogle, but he skidded to a halt beside Steiner, and held up a letter.

“Ku-Kupo! Urgent! For Sir Rust-a-lot!” Artemicion announced, huffing and puffing. The knight looked down at the parchment, and took it with a frown. Only Tantalus called him that.

No...only...!!!

Steiner looked at the letter and would have shouted, fainted, screamed, or any combination of those when he read what was on the front, but—

‘We found him. Keep quiet about it. Details inside.’

*

_On a dark and stormy night..._

It was uncanny, how loud Steiner’s presence was even when he was hiding in a shadowy corner of the castle. She could feel him as she stepped out of the foyer and into the courtyard, her skin prickling up with the terror of facing him.

How did he know...?

Come now, how couldn’t he?

“Beatrix, don’t go,” His voice carried to her even over the growing breeze. She didn’t look at him, instead focusing on her fingers worrying against each other and the dark storm brewing over the Raza.

“Please do not try to stop me. My mind is set,” She stated smoothly, as heartlessly as she could manage. She cursed his stubbornness, his steadfast loyalty to things that did not deserve his single-minded devotion (herself), and tried to remember what it was like to be indignant at him.

Beatrix came up with absolutely no fury at all. Her politeness had no edge.

“And so it is. But I don’t think the same of your heart.” His timbre had a tremor, the same one in her fingers, and she clenched her eye tightly.

“I have no purpose here. I am not the General that Garnet needs. I would cause nothing but strife,” She explained without venom, facing the courtyard so as not to look at his face.

If she looked at him she would break.

“Do not do this, Beatrix. If you wanted to run away without incident you would have done so! If you wanted to leave without me noticing I would not be here to beseech you,” Steiner urged, and at that Beatrix tasted anger.

“That isn’t true! I am not asking you to be here and I am not asking you to stop me. Maybe for once you caught me by surprise,” That he would think her leaving was meant to be seen by him! The audacity—the overconfidence—

“You think this is the only way to make amends. You think you have to leave to level out Brahne’s sins. But so much of you doesn’t want to just flee! I know it!”

“What do you know?!” Beatrix turned on him—and that was a mistake, because he was a step closer and his eyes were bright in the lamplight and he was looking at her like she was what he swore his life to—her voice caught. He continued, unyielding, he was!

“I know you are too smart for me to catch you by accident. I know you love this realm too much to leave Garnet alone. I know you would do anything for Alexandria because of that love. And I know you have never given up on anything in your life, and you are so close to doing so. That’s why I’m here. Because you need me to ask you not to leave. You need me to ask you to stay, to defend our Queen together!”

A beat. A pulse pounding moment when she could have turned tail and ran, but that earnest, stupid, square-jawed face of his held her steady.

Beatrix took for granted how much she knew of Adelbert Steiner. It never crossed her mind that he knew her just as well. That he knew her better than she did.

She did exactly what she knew she would, she broke. Rushed to him. Held him like a lifeline—like he held her heart.

In the distance, dancing lightning struck a steeple’s rusted iron roofing rod.

*

“This is dramatic, Adelbert, even for you,” Beatrix chastised, looking from the man she loved to his snickering cohorts. He grinned as widely as the other two did. Her office was sparse, still having been cleared from her almost-flight, but it was useful for their clandestine meeting.

“But it’ll be quite a show!” Marcus piped up, and Beatrix pinched the bridge of her nose.

“And everything is already sorted. I mean, Zidane has it all figured out so why derail the thing? Dagger loves the play, let’s bring him back the same way she met him,” Blank added in from the doorway.

“Yes, how romantic. She doesn’t even know he’s alive and let’s throw that on her in the middle of her birthday celebration in front of all her subjects,” She argued, and Steiner chuckled under his breath.

“I can’t believe you’re encouraging this,” She glared at him as she dropped her hand to her desk.

Her Captain, her by-the-rules, law-abiding, stickler of a Captain, merely shrugged.

“I believe it would be the same way no matter what means he used to reveal himself,” Steiner said, “And it will be a surprise to end all surprises.”

She really could not believe any of it.

“You’ve been around Tantalus too much,” Beatrix sighed, but knew she would not fight them on this. If they put this much thought into their surprise, who was she to stand in the way.

“Careful, Rusty. She’s gonna start telling you how to live your life,” Blank advised, and Marcus scoffed.

“You mean like what Ruby does to you?” The tattooed thief replied. Steiner scrunched his nose back at them and Beatrix rose a delicate brow.

“She’s been doing this for years, it’s nothing new!” Steiner responded belligerently and Beatrix fought the triumphant smirk growing on her face.

*

Zidane’s return was an epilogue; it was a beginning wrapped in an ending.

He wasn’t sure how he managed to rope Beatrix into the farce that Zidane thought up, but she had much more flair than he! Beatrix gave a flourishing bow and his princess ran into the arms of the man who stole her heart.

Steiner kept his pace with his General as she clapped with the rest of the crowd at the sudden finale, settling his hand on her shoulder as they reached the balcony.

“I believe this,” Steiner pulled up Save the Queen from it’s resting position beside the throne, “Belongs to you.” He held it between the two of them, and her eyes ran upwards along the length of the quicksilver blade.

She hadn’t touched it since she set it down, many weeks ago. Beatrix smiled at him, dazzling and striking, her eye lit like an ember and her hair a liquid sunset—

“And so it does, Sir Knight,” Her hand found his gauntlet, raised the blade high to catch the light just right—

And all was well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone makes it to these end notes, this was the first published fanfic I have ever written. Once again, like...twenty years in the making! 
> 
> There was once a fanfic called ‘A tale of two warriors’ on another fic site about these two, and I always wanted that story to be finished. I don’t know if it did, but I decided to write what I wanted to read, and I wanted to read a novel of Beatrix/Steiner. So here we are!
> 
> I have a lot to write about FF9, and maybe I will, eventually. Not just about Rusty, but he will always be in my writing for sure. 
> 
> A big thanks to everyone who has ever commented, kudos, or even looked at this monster. I hope it helps scratch a small fandom itch, or simply makes your day better. 
> 
> Cheers to all!


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